Ethics of Food Production and Consumption - The Oxford Topic of Food, Politics, and Society - page 240

Informed food choice and labeling are important concepts for ethical approaches
(Clough, this volume). On the basis of either a deontological (like that of Kant) or a
utilitarian (like that of Mill) approach, it can be argued that consumers have a right to be
informed about the food they want to buy and a right to make their own decision (the
right to food autonomy). Food choice is seen as something for which consumers rightly
require autonomy, and honest and relevant information about composition and origin,
for instance, are considered to be important items. In the United States many producers
and others are against giving this type of information; however, in the European Union
there are strict rules about what to put in the labeling of foodstuffs. Labeling and types of
certification on content and production are helpful for consumers, because they enable
them to make a reasonable food choice in accordance with his or her life and food style.
What should be put on the label and what should be certified and how are ethical issues.
Ethical traceability is developed in the context of extending consumer control over
large networks of food chains; producers already use traceability schemes to find where
potential risks in those chains can occur. However, many consumers, conscious of the
fact that in those chains ethical decision are also made, for example, on animal welfare
(are the pigs penned or allowed to forage?) and fair treatment of farmers, want to develop
their own systems of information, with the aim that they get information on the basis of
which they can choose the products that satisfy their often differing values. Consumers
also want information about environmental footprints and climate-changing gas
emission during the production process. Some experiments are being done with this
approach. New social media can assist in making the information available to those con-
sumers who are interested (Coff 2008).
Food sovereignty is a concept that originated with small and medium farmers in Latin
America (Chappell, this volume). It posits as foundational:
the right of peoples to define their own food and agriculture; to protect and regulate
domestic agricultural production and trade in order to achieve sustainable devel-
opment objectives; to determine the extent to which they want to be self-reliant; to
restrict the dumping of products in their markets; and to provide local fisheries-based
communities the priority in managing the use of and the rights to aquatic resources.
(Desmarais, Wiebe, and Witman 2010
However, the concept is now often used by movements in the developed world, such as
those promoting urban gardening and urban community farming, which do not always
produce all their food, but do seek control of many of the fresh food produced locally
or elsewhere. Food sovereignty in this shift is then changed into values more consistent
with consumer sovereignty (which takes on here a quite different meaning than the doc-
trine in market economics).
Co-existence of different food and agro systems takes into account that both produc-
ers and consumers can differ in their appreciation of different agricultural systems; for
example genetically modified crops and organic crops are connected with very different
values about what good food is and what the value of nature is. Nevertheless, it is possible