The Ethics In Eating

This is part 10 of my research on global food movements entitled
GLOBALIZATION: It's what's for dinner

WHICH WAY TO GO?: The Ethics In Eating

If a food revolution is to save the planet and improve humanity's chance for survival, bioethics must be introduced and deployed.

According to Fox, bioethics are "the extension of ethical issues and concerns from the immediate human community into the broader biological dimension of our relations with, and duties toward, the biotic community - animals, plants, and the whole of nature. Bioethical principles in food production and consumption are keys to a more sensible and compassionate future." [53]

In his book, Eating With Conscience, Fox provides
four bioethical principles: [54]

1. Ahimsa = Minimizing and avoiding harm or injury to agricultural and natural ecosystems, including wildlife, soil microorganisms, beneficial insects, and birds. (For more information, check out my 6 part series on AHIMSA from 2008.)

2. Biodiversity = Protecting and even enhancing biodiversity of both domestic and non-domestic animals and plants.

3. Transgenerational equity (sustainability) = Securing and improving the environmental quality and productivity of the land for future generations.

4. Symbiotic enhancement = Heightening the life and beauty of the land rather than "destroying what was, a generation or two ago, called the countryside."

"Ethical behavior is one way I can show gratitude for the many blessings in my life and express my spirit of a reverential respect for all of life," Fox writes.

For Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, ethics must extend to food choices. [55] Under his leadership the Church of England issued a report entitled Sharing God's Planet that recommends sustainable consumption and says every Christian has a duty to care for every part of God's creation, with clergy first being the examples by making eco-friendly consumption choices personally and in the parish. [56]

One's beliefs ground one's ethics, which help determine the lifestyle choices which are made. Unfortunately, as Singer and Mason point out, ethical consumption has gone much further in Europe than in the United States. [57]

In Europe, for example, NGOs have campaigned to persuade supermarkets to stock organic, freely traded products, free of GMOs since the 1980s. The authors also note that progress in the area of ethics will be tougher in America than in Britain and Europe because "America's food industry seeks to keep Americans in the dark about the ethical components of their choices." [58] If you can't see, you can't judge so to be able to act ethically.

Next post: (Sorry for any delays.)
Ethics and conscious action

[53] Fox, 12.
[54] Ibid., 145.
[55] Singer and Mason, 6.
[56] Cited in Ibid., 6-7.
[57] Ibid., 5.
[58] Ibid., 7.