By Lee Hall
Part 14 of a Series
Sustainable Development Goals: They’re a major topic on social media. But if humans want to be sustainable, we’ve got to get serious. We must divest from customs and businesses that treat animal life as commodities. This blog entry is the 14th in a series, as we look at each of the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The14th goal is “Climate Action.”
The wonky talk on Goal 14 is mainly about how we should “support small fishers” and buy “sustainable seafood”; but imagine how healthy the waters would become if we respected (instead of commodified) aquatic beings. From sea turtles to penguins, non-target animals, too, are spared when we stop thinking of aquatic animals as food.
If we have the privilege of choice, the best we can do is to adopt an all-plant diet. Animal farm runoff
(chemicals and farm animal waste) contribute to massive marine dead zones. And fish farming is the
fastest growing sector of agribusiness for the past 40 years. Let's turn this around. And let’s exert
pressure on the global scale, to end subsidies to international trawling fleets.
Let’s commit to chickpeas.
Lee Hall is a member of the Speakers Bureau of the American Vegan Society. Lee’s entry on “Nonhuman Rights and Human Sustainability” appears in the Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (Springer). Lee holds a Master’s degree in environmental law with a focus on climate change from Vermont Law School, and has taught environmental law at the University level.
