Mission 2011 does not support replacing the protein and nutritional value gained from fish with other animal meats, especially cattle: the cattle industry is a large contributor to global warming from the clear-cutting of forests to methane production (Marian, 2007). We do endorse obtaining the necessary amino acids from combinations of grain/wheat/flour with legumes/vegetables/beans.  Additional information on food combining to achieve optimal protein intake from non-animal sources can be found on Protein in the Vegan Diet and on this Protein Information Sheet.

We also recognize that protein replacement in societies entirely dependent on fish, or in countries with little arable land, is much more difficult and less logical. Therefore, Mission 2011 highly encourages peoples not dependent on fish for sustenance with access to other means of protein to substantially decrease their consumption of fish.

Works Cited

Marian Koshland Science Museum of the National Academy of Sciences. (2007). Global Warming Facts and Our Future. Retrieved 17 November 2007, from the World Wide Web: http://koshlandscience.org/exhibitgcc/causes04.jsp.

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3 Comments

  1. Eva Y Cheung

    Aaron made a good analogy during our group meeting today: he said telling people to stop eating fish and eat something else is like the MIT administration telling us to stop hacking and find something else to do for fun. They would impose this regulation out of concern for our safety and our ability to use all our limbs even after we graduate, just like we're telling people not to fish so that there will be fish in the future. But hacking is an integral part of MIT culture, and fishing even more so for communities like Gloucester.

    So like I said in class, we should be careful about how insistent we are that people change their diets. We're definitely implying that people need to eat less fish, and suggesting these alternatives might be okay, but saying they should all replace their diets with tofu instead makes us seem hypocritical/ignorant/unnecessarily provocative.

    1. Christopher T Su

      Exactly, and it's impossible to implement this with small island nation states. They are already so dependent on fish for their diet that it wouldn't be economically viable (nor sensible) for them to replace their protein intake with other foods like cattle (importing beef for them to get protein is ridiculously expensive for them!). Therefore, when I talked about the small island states, I proposed an idea of supplementing their protein with soybean products imported with the aid of the FAO (the small island states produce tropical agricultural products in exchange for other protein agricultural products that will not be available on the island (for ex: soybean cultivation requires way too much land for most island nations to sustain it themselves).

  2. Emily A Moberg

    This probably shouldn't be its own page; could it be integrated into education?