The Waitrose Food & Drink Report is out, an annual summary of how the nation has been spending its money on food. Although, of course, it is not the entire nation, just that part of it that shops at Waitrose. As usual, it is full of surprises. Did you know that customers have bought a head-turning 700% more tahini this year? Or that seaganism – with its attendant seacuterie (salmon pastrami, swordfish ham) – is now a thing?
Both these things point to the report’s most salient trend: in a bid to eschew packaging, we are making more stuff from scratch (tahini + chickpeas = hummus), and we are tending towards – but not entirely committing to – vegan eating.
The report defines seaganism as a vegan, or plant-based diet, with added sustainable seafood. Amy Cramer and Lisa McComsey, authors of the 2016 cookbook Seagan Eating, state on their website that it is starting with a plant-based foundation and adding “the ‘cheat’ of fish several times a week”. Vegan hardliners – or vegans, as they like to be known – will point out that adding fish means you are not vegan. Cramer and McComsey, though, bill their approach as baby steps for middle-grounders, and say the fish is for extra meal variety and omega-3s.
A University of Oxford study last month concluded that, by and large, healthy diets are also best for the environment. There were two major caveats, though: high-sugar foods and fish. Cookies and soft drinks may be bad for us, but they have little impact on the planet. Conversely, as Marco Springmann, one of the study’s co-authors, explains, eating fish, while good for you, has a larger environmental impact than plant-based diets. Two portions of fish a week reduces the risk of disease, although, he says, that is nothing that a good vegan diet can’t compensate for.
In terms of the planet, though, both wild fishing and aquaculture farming result in greenhouse gas emissions, and a notable carbon footprint, not to mention consumer-led overfishing. Mussels, he says, are the most sustainable seafood. But with no real evidence that seaganism is better for either our health or the environment, let’s hope this isn’t the latest dietary fad to catch on.
