Abstract
The current global COVID-19 pandemic has led to a deep and multidimensional crisis across all sectors of society. As countries contemplate their mobility and social-distancing policy restrictions, we have a unique opportunity to re-imagine the deliberative frameworks and value priorities in our food systems. Pre-pandemic food systems at global, national, regional and local scales already needed revision to chart a common vision for sustainable and ethical food futures. Re-orientation is also needed by the relevant sciences, traditionally siloed in their disciplines and without adequate attention paid to how the food system problem is variously framed by diverse stakeholders according to their values. From the transdisciplinary perspective of food ethics, we argue that a post-pandemic scheme focused on bottom-up, regional, cross-sectoral and non-partisan deliberation may provide the re-orientation and benchmarks needed for not only more sustainable, but also more ethical food futures.
Highlights
The current global COVID-19 pandemic has led to a deep and multidimensional crisis across all sectors of society
We have presented foundational considerations of food ethics for strategic discussion on the future of the food system
This will require a transdisciplinary science in the empirical study and normative reflection of pro-social attitudes and value tradeoffs as they affect diverse stakeholders and citizens along the global food value chain
Summary
Food Ethics (2021) 6: 4 both State and business debts will increase considerably, as will protectionism, while global travel (Hall et al 2020) and trade will decline markedly, accompanied by shorter supply chains (Bonadio et al 2020) and greater volatility in the pricing of stocks, property and currencies (Mirza et al 2020; Corbet et al 2020). Through the pandemic, underlying value dilemmas have come to the fore, instigating critiques of some sectors of society and revealing the dire need to resolve such dilemmas to overcome global challenges One such value-laden area where we all want stability and security is the global food system. The explicit inclusion of scientific, and societal uncertainties inherent in value plurality is crucial for this endeavour While such an ethical framework is useful generally in many areas of life (e.g., Millar et al 2007), it is of particular importance for the global food sector, given the high stakes that lie at its confluence of global food security, health, environment and trade. The current crisis brings critically to the fore underlying food value dilemmas that need to be resolved at multiple scales This requires a deliberative framework grounded in procedural ethics for re-envisioning and re-structuring the food system. These ethical qualities are captured by the deliberative processes fulfilling some criteria of “ethical soundness” (Kaiser et al 2007), notably the explicit inclusion of the value landscapes of societal actors and the rational assessment of options given these values and commonly agreed norms
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