Before Dinner: Philosophy and Ethics of Food (The International Library of Environmental, Agricultural and Food Ethics)

219 Pages·2004·1.83 MB·English

by  Michiel Korthals

BEFORE DINNER
The International Library of Environmental, Agricultural and Food Ethics
VOLUME5
Editors
Michiel Korthals, Dept. of Applied Philosophy, Wageningen University, Wageningen,
The Netherlands
Paul B. Thompson, Dept. of Philosophy, Purdue University, West Lafayette, U.S.A.
Editorial Board
Timothy Beatley, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, U.S.A.
Lawrence Busch, Dept. of Sociology, Michigan State University, Lansing, U.S.A.
Anil Gupta, Centre for Management in Agriculture, Gujarat, India
Richard Haynes, Dept. of Philosophy, University of Florida, Gainesville, U.S.A.
Daryl Macer, The Eubios Ethics Institute, University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan
Ben Mepham, Centre for Applied Bio-Ethics, School of Biosciences, University of
Nottingham, Loughborough, United Kingdom
Dietmar Mieth, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
Egbert Schroten, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

A C.I.P. Catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN 1-4020-2992-6 (HB)
ISBN 1-4020-2993-4 (e-book)
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Revised edition and translation of the Dutch book: Voor het Eten, uitgeverij Boom, 2002.
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CONTENTS

List of tables and figures ix
Acknowledgment xi
Foreword xiii

Chapter 1: Good food, good eating, good living 1
1.1 How it all began 3
1.2 What is the matter with our food? 4
1.3 The setup of this book 5

Chapter 2: What do philosophers say about nutrition? A brief history 7
2.1 Production 8
2.2 Consumption 11
2.3 Conclusion 15

Chapter 3: Toward a philosophy of nutrition 17
3.1 Esthetic, social, cultural, and moral functions of food 17
3.2 You are not what you eat 21

Chapter 4: Modern and postmodern lifestyles and foodstyles 23
4.1 Nature, risks, globalization, and individualization 23
4.2 Late-modern lifestyles and foodstyles 25

Chapter 5: Ethics and politics of nutrition - liberal versus deliberative
perspectives 29
5.1 Autonomy and fairness versus identity in a community 29
5.2 The neutral liberal perspective on autonomy 32
5.3 Problems of the liberal approach 35
5.4 The deliberative perspective on nutrition 37
5.5 Toward non-neutral, impartial ethics and politics of nutrition 39
5.6 Conclusion 41

Chapter 6: Living with ethical dilemmas 45
6.1 Ethical dilemmas in agriculture and nutrition 45
6.2 Three approaches in food ethics 47
6.3 Deliberative ethics – debate, values, and trust 51
6.4 Heuristic of ethical reasoning 55
6.5 Conclusion 58

v
vi CONTENTS

Chapter 7: Welfare of and respect for living beings. May we eat anything? 61
7.1 Plants 62
7.2 Humans versus animals? Anthropocentrism, anthropomorphism, 64
and zoocentrism
7.3 Some of my best friends eat meat. Philosophers about eating meat 68
7.4 Does keeping animals imply caring for them? 71
7.5 Justification for killing and eating farm animals 86
7.6 Keeping cattle in large or small volumes 90
7.7 The failure of agricultural expertise and the cost-benefit analysis 92
in the foot-and-mouth disease crisis
7.8 Conclusion 94

Chapter 8: Heaven or hell: scientific production and preparation of food 97
8.1 Scientific production, cooking, and eating of food 99
8.2 Great promises and the turnaround to Frankenfear 101
8.3 Between food and drug – functional food 113
8.4 Genomics and nutrigenomics 126
8.5 A deliberative and practical perspective – new practices 130
and responsibilities
8.6 How shall we feed ourselves in a technological culture? 131
8.7 Conclusion – Does food technology mean good living? 132

Chapter 9: Globalization of the food production system 135
9.1 Globalization and its discontents 136
9.2 Trading in food – risks and culture 141
9.3 Poverty and world hunger 145
9.4 International democratic government structures and public forums 147

Chapter 10: Consumers, abundance, and responsibility 149
10.1 Consumption or consumer society 150
10.2 Where consumers stand – on the sideline 152
10.3 Consumers, citizens, and markets 155
10.4 Tastes – enjoying, feasting, and fasting 160
10.5 Gluttony – sin or pleasure 164
10.6 Individual rights and responsibility 173

Chapter 11: The future of nutrition and agriculture 175
11.1 Three challenges 175
11.2 Key ethical concepts 176
11.3 The edible landscape in Europe and the rest of the world 177
11.4 Conscious consumers 179
11.5 The edible government 180
11.6 Good living is eating with moral dilemmas 183
CONTENTS vii

Appendix 1 Differences in Risk Perception and 185
Views on Food Safety

Appendix 2 New Public Responsibilities for Food Scientists 193

Literature 201

About the author 213
LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Chapter 4
Table 1. Mouth sensations and flavor styles according to Klosse 2004

Chapter 5
Table 2. Ethical Perspectives Justice and The Good Life

Table 3. Advocates and opponents of GM-Food or Functional Food according to
Ethical Perspectives Justice and The Good Life

Table 4. The relationships between different types of discussions according to
Habermas

Table 5. Relationship between notions Justice and The Good Life according to
Rawls and Habermas

Chapter 6
Table 6. Ethical matrix filled in by Mepham 1996

Figure 1. The four layer-model of society

Table 7. Differences between intention/opinion and decision making processes

Table 8. Notions Justice and Good Life in the deliberative perspective

Chapter 10
Figure 2. Relationships between eating pleasure and animal welfare

Chapter 11
Table 9. Tasks of governments in food policy

Appendix 1
Table 10. Ideological fronts about risks and food safety
ix
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The translation of this publication was carried out with the support of the
Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO).
xi