The Challenges of Dietary Pluralism (original) (raw)
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Ethics and Politics of Food; toward a deliberative perspective
Mystarting point in this article on clarifying ethical issues of food (in the broad sense, including agricultural products and processed foods) will be the distinction between, on the one hand, liberal ideas on autonomy and fairness and, on the other hand, communitarian ideas on values with respect to food that are part of the specific identity of a community. These two types of ideas are described generally rather well in the literature of theoretical ethics and indeed very often formulated, systematized, and justified as being principles and core values respectively. These ideas serve as fruitful starting points for a more detailed discussion about the ethical implications of controversies related to food. Using this distinction, we can inquire, as it were, into the significance and the weight of the arguments of advocates and opponents of the controversies on food. Next I will cover a critique of the liberal and communitarian views on food and present in two steps an alternative: first the perspective of Habermas and second a revision of his deliberative perspective. This is a broader perspective that considers such values as respect for the individual as a member of communities and the pluralism of lifestyles
A new Discipline in Philosophy: Food Ethics. Issues, concepts and Challenges
Food production and consumption involves ethics, as reflected in prohibitions, refutations, exhortations, recommendations, and even less explicit ethical notions such as whether a certain food product is natural. Food ethics has emerged as an important academic discipline and a branch of philosophy whose underlying goal is to define and elucidate food ethical problems. This article explores the ethics of food production and food consumption. It first presents a historical overview of food and the evolving gap between food production and consumption before discussing a number of quite pressing social concerns associated with the present-day food production system. It then considers concepts and approaches, including agrarianism and pluralism, in the context of two urgent food ethical problems: malnutrition and producing and eating meat. The article also examines food choice, the relationship between food ethics and politics, and the task of food ethics before concluding with a discussion of the future of food and food ethics.
Vegetarianism - A Lifestyle Politics?
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Ethics and the politics of food
International Journal of Food Microbiology, 2007
In spite of sophisticated technological and scientific developments in food production and nutrition, efficient means of food distribution, and unprecedented availability of food in some parts of the world, food is contested like never before. Some consumers are concerned about food safety and ethics related to the food they buy, others are concerned because their means of livelihood hardly allows them to take on the role of consumers at all. Others still, lack the opportunity to be active co-participants in the governance and shaping of the local and global food system, and thus, feel disenfranchised. It is a paradox that amidst technological achievements, economic welfare, and global politics, the right to safe and healthy food for all remains so difficult to secure. Yet, this is precisely the case in the world today. ''The ethics and the politics of food'' was the title of the 6th conference of the European Society for Agricultural and Food Ethics (EurSafe), held in Oslo in June 2006. This special issue presents a selection of papers that were presented there. The original versions of these papers were printed in the Congress preprints. The current versions have been reviewed, revised, and expanded. One important lesson from the conference is that issues related to the ethics and the politics of food do not belong to a single discipline, but cut across the boundaries between philosophy, social sciences, and the natural sciences. What starts out as a concern about food risk and safety soon moves to important discussions in ethics, politics, and cultural values. Another important lesson is that food itself transcends boundaries between realms of modern society such as between production and consumption, science, technology, and politics, and nature and culture. This special issue reflects the transcendent, trans-disciplinary, and global character of this emerging field. Selecting the following set of articles, we have sought to capture some of the variety of empirical topics and analytic approaches that characterizes the contributions to the conference. Empirically, one can study the ethics and politics of food from the points of view of consumption, primary production, industrial production, policy making and regulation, or global organizations. Pressing issues of concern include proper land use, animal welfare, genetic modification
Law, Religions and Food Choices
In today’s multicultural society, religious freedom must also be guaranteed within food-use patterns. The Milan Charter (Expo 2015) focuses specifically on this issue. Each person has the right to determine his diet according to his lifestyle and his cultural and religious identity. The right to feed oneself according to one’s own religious exigencies calls for the enforcing of religious freedom. This might be termed “food-related religious freedom,” and it requires, to begin with, drawing attention to the protection of religious food-related exigencies in prisons, hospitals and schools. The same issue arises in relation to workplaces and transport facilities for long-distance journeys. Is the right to feed oneself according to religious dietary exigencies also guaranteed in these contexts? Law must ensure the exercise of freedom, but it is also necessary to avoid a surfeit of exceptions that hinder the smooth functioning of public and private services. These issues represent not only a challenge to civilization, but also an economic opportunity for all the companies that might provide services based on dietary restriction requirements. We must strike a balance in our legal systems between public needs and religious exigencies.
2018
Human eating habits are widely distinguished between Vegetarianism and Non-Vegetarianism, where former presumes themselves to be holding no moral risk toward nature and animals as they do not eat animal meats. However, if we examine it closely and thoroughly, every eating habits hold some or other moral risk. My paper is an attempt to unfold different arguments made in support and against the moral concern of Vegetarianism. Although it is impalpable to answer ‘What is morally good to eat?’, our discourse helps to bring forth different arguments to understand the moral concern of our eating habits.
The trouble with meat: an ambiguous food
A. Igor de Garine, Hubert and R. Avila (Eds). Man …, 2004
In human society, meat is highly prized nutritionally, but possesses a high symbolic value, involving cost and sacrifice. Humans' attitude towards meat eating is ambiguous, as witnessed by cultures that do not condone killing, cannibalism, the sacrificial rituals of slaughter and patterns of abstention, including modern vegetarianism. The "dietary murder" that precedes carnivorousness can either be festive or provoke shame. * With the collaboration of Valerie de Garine.
Our Discourse of Meat: What Are We Really Doing?
2008
In this essay I will look at the symbolism that meat holds within our ‘modern’ ‘Western’ society. I will begin by briefly introducing the study of food in general within the social sciences, setting a framework of reference for the exploration of meat specifically. In examining meat I will firstly set the context by turning to the global livestock sector and its relationship with the environment, before probing meat’s physical properties and their ensuing symbolism, which, as we will see, is the basic foundation for meat’s high culinary and dietetic value in our culture. I will then continue to investigate meat’s symbolism by asking what place, if any, may meat hold within our wider cultural cosmology, within our systems of social and moral ideas, before drawing some conclusions.