Ethics of Food Production and Consumption - The Oxford Topic of Food, Politics, and Society - page 232

transformed again in another direction. Food ethics suggests alternative paths—for
example, in the direction of more concern with food production and with the context of
production and consumption. It is with this assumption about the open future and the
necessity to think about the ethical issues such as sustainability, malnutrition, and obe-
sity with which humankind is confronted that food ethics starts its analysis.
Ethical Issues of Food Production
Ethicists are confronted with numerous hot ethical issues involving current food and
agricultural systems, partly due to this long, continuing process of alienation of humans
from food and partly because of the experiences and work of food practioners, consum-
ers, and ethicists. This section considers seven issues; it does not pretend to present an
exhaustive list, but is indicative of the range and scope of ethical issues that are poten-
tially relevant to food and its politics.
First, although there is enough food to feed 8 billion people, more than one billion
people on earth suffer from hunger and even more from malnutrition (FAO 2010). This
is often an issue of people not having enough to buy food (no jobs, not in possession of
their own plots anymore, etc.). Nevertheless, the increases of population and of demand
make the problem of food security the more urgent. Harvest catastrophes, more mouths
to feed, and speculation cause not only the rise of prices but also the increase in demand
of animal products and, therefore, crops for animal feed and of biofuels (which has
as a side effect a higher pressure on food crops). Rising food prices play a role in food
riots in countries in which people have to spend a lot of their household budget on food
(Pinstrup-Andersen 2007). Do well-fed people have an obligation to help the hungry?
What should be the role and responsibilities of states and international bodies? Can
food aid help? Are any types of biofuels ethically acceptable (Pimentel and Burgess, this
volume)? Is more production necessary or should the existing food stocks be more justly
distributed (Sen 2010; Tansey 2008)? These questions will be treated in Case Studies in
Food Ethical Issues.
Second, connected with the first issue is that of malnutrition. Many people in the
poorer areas having often enough to eat suffer from severe diseases due to lack of neces-
sary micronutrients (vitamins, minerals), such as stunted growth, blindness, and con-
centration problems (Stein, this volume). In the richer areas, there are also problems
of malnutrition due to long-term unhealthy effects of the current food system, includ-
ing obesity (Critser 2003), cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, and various types of
cancer (Lang and Heasman 2004; Korthals 2011). What can be done about malnutrition
and who has responsibility to tackle this problem? This question will be treated in Case
Studies in Food Ethical Issues as well.
Third, the current food and agricultural system is not sustainable. Consider the ques-
tion of consumption of animals as food, though it constitutes only one of many effects
of agriculture as a whole. Animal husbandry, for example, contributes disproportionally