Eating Ethically: Towards a Communitarian Food Model
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Eating Ethically: Towards a Communitarian Food Model Shivani Sharma 1 Accepted: 28 August 2020/ # Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract
It is no secret that there have been radical changes in the way we produce and consume food ever since the introduction of industrial methods of production to food. Such changes have raised several ethical concerns about loss of biodiversity, ethical treatment of animals, nutritional quality of industrial food, safety of genetically modified food, and adequate working conditions of people in agricultural sector among many others. Food ethics has recently started to respond to some such concerns. However, a food ethics that is based on individualistic theories and principles such as well-being, and liberty is part of the problem. The shortcoming is that it identifies individuals only in an isolated way without considering their social contexts and relationships. We are tied by our location, cultural values, race, gender, familial traditions, societal norms, and human institutions, along with relationships to environments and animals. In order to highlight the narrow focus of individualistic principles in addressing food debates I have utilized an ethical tool called the ‘ethical matrix’ that analysis food issues with respect to the principles of wellbeing, autonomy and justice. In this paper, I present the case for a communitarian model of food ethics that can help address the ethical concerns raised by industrial food production and also suggest a possible way to assist in making ethical decisions. Keywords Industrial food production . Ethical matrix . Communitarianism
Problem and Aim Few topics attract public interest and concern the way food does. It would be safe to say that food is and has been one of the most universally important and relevant subjects; everyone engages in conversations and activities relating to food on a daily basis. It is what is of utmost significance to a lot of people and has for this reason attracted a philosophical interest since time immemorial. However, the concept of food has been evolving with changing times as a
* Shivani Sharma [email protected]
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Department of Philosophy, Arts Faculty, University of Delhi, Room no.11, Delhi, India
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result of changes in the way we create it and engage with it. Humans have over centuries invented different ways of producing food, like cooking, cultivating, herding, storing and freezing. The practice of ‘creating our food’ is what differentiates us from nature; humans are unique in their ability to manipulate natural resources to create food. According to Armesto (2002), food became intimately bound with human civilizations and social groups through events like invention of cooking, associating food with meaning, the herding revolution (breeding of domestic animals), invention of agriculture, association of food with rank, food and long range exchanges of cultures within the world, the revolution of ecological exchanges within the world, and finally the
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