Ethics of Food Production and Consumption - The Oxford Topic of Food, Politics, and Society - page 247

and animal food then come into the picture as important factors determining the way
farmers conduct their farms.
Task of Food Ethics
The discussion of the cases shows that food ethics has a difficult task. It is not an easy
job of simply applying certain ethical principles, but a deep going analysis has to be
done, in which technical (empirical) details are to be taken seriously and through which
often no clear answers can be found, just as in daily life consumers sometimes can get no
clear answer to challenging food dilemmas. During this process it can be that cherished
notions of fundamental, nonapplied branches of philosophy are proven to be insuffi-
cient; food ethics can play a fundamental role in philosophy. Food ethics often provokes,
just as other branches of philosophy sometimes do.
The main tasks of food ethics are first to give a coherent overview of all the ethical prob-
lems that potentially confront people involved in the current food production system
and second to overcome the gap between producers and consumers (as sketched in The
Context: The Evolving Gap Between Food Production and Consumption). The assump-
tion here is that ethical reasoning is embedded in communities—for many, the commu-
nity of the human species. In this respect, food ethics is, first, intensely collaborating with
the other agro-food disciplines, but it tries to do more than these particular regimes to
integrate aspects and levels of consideration. Second, food ethics focuses on the most
relevant and burning ethical issues in the food production and consumption processes
(discussed in Ethical Issues of Food Production), by explicating, analyzing and critically
evaluating them in conjunction with one another. Again, together with other disciplines,
but also in close contact with stakeholders, ethical examination can contribute to accept-
able solutions. Third, food ethics can delve deeper by explicating and putting forward
ethical principles, norms, and values that are important in food-production processes.
The analysis of cases in Case Studies in Food Ethical Issues is one example. Finally, food
ethics can contribute to important questions: How should one study food production
and consumption in ways that contribute to the nutritional and food sciences. Food con-
stitutes multiple ethically contested sites. It can be studied in an objective way, although
not neutrally, and ethics can help in working through that apparent contradiction.
As in any other philosophical discipline, nothing is outside debate and unquestion-
able. Controversies abound. Nevertheless, one value seems to be a fundamental assump-
tion: Food and food production are essential elements of human life. Beyond this
indisputable fact, many food ethicists argue for more—for example, that food has mean-
ings for self, identities, and societies and can be neglected only at great costs. Food and
food production cover relationships that one cannot fully outsource. They require main-
tenance, exercise, and cultivation with respect to the various aspects of food production
and consumption. When humans distance themselves too much from these relations—for