Food Ethics Research Articles

Developments in Agricultural Crop Innovations

This review focuses on two emerging areas of agricultural product development, namely vertical farming and alternative animal products. We note that the drivers of this type of food innovation are a combination of factors that are resource based or supply chain based or reflect shifts in tastes, preferences, and food ethics. We conclude that leafy greens produced in vertical farms are now established in a rapidly growing market and that the plant-based meat alternatives in the form of burgers and nuggets are well established. For the nascent cultured meat sector, it is still too early to predict how widely it will penetrate into the conventional meat and fish markets based on current production methods, cost, and consumer acceptance, but investments in technological improvements are progressing.

Obesity and immune system impairment: Aglobal problem during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The production of healthy and nutritious food, in an ecologically sustainable and safe way, has become one of the great ethical issues of our time. The recent G 20 urged the "promotion and work on the social determinants of health to address other critical health issues such as food and nutrition". The aim of this work is to analyze the current scientific literature regarding the role of obesity in the severe COVID-19 outcomes. In the light of the indications of the G20, the main causes of obesity are examined, and lifestyles are suggested with particular regard to proper nutrition in order to prevent/treat overweight since childhood. Multidisciplinary work, in which the biological and legal perspectives provide a meta-legal analysis of the obesity problem. Unhealthy habits induce metabolic imbalance and increase in the body weight promoting obesity. This condition is the result of many factors (genetic predisposition, social position and "junk food" consumption) and is associated with a high risk of diseases, among them exacerbations from viral respiratory infections, including the current COVID-19 pandemic. The industrial food revolution changed our eating habits, leading to production of too much unhealthy food, absent in ancient diet, thus contributing to the onset of some disorders. The business of food industry should be downsized in favor of morally or ethically fair choices for consumers and for the well-being of society, together with an ethical food distribution, governmental food education programs, and balanced oversight of food production.

A Personal Editorial from the Editor-in-Chief: Food Ethics in Times of War

A Personal Editorial from the Editor-in-Chief: Food Ethics in Times of War

Critical reflections on "humane" meat and plant-based meat "alternatives"

Canadians are among the top meat consumers in the world. Greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity loss, animal stress and suffering, worker health and safety, and cardiovascular disease are among the multitude of issues tied to high rates of meat consumption. In response to rising concern and debate over the impacts of meat consumption, two sectors of the food industry have grown considerably in recent years: "humane" meat and plant-based meat "alternatives." The former attempts to ameliorate harms via more ethical farming practices, and the latter utilizes technological innovations to replace animal-based meat. In this article, we outline a dilemma wherein pathways to more sustainable and ethical food systems may require both an acceptance of these solutions and a push beyond them towards more complex, systemic changes. We conclude with a brief discussion of critical food guidance, and the potential roles of law, regulation, and policy in driving incremental but important changes.

A Bite of the Forbidden Fruit: The Abject of Food and Affirmative Environmental Ethics

Abstract This article explores the negative framing of environmental concern in the context of food procurement and consumption, through the lens of the myth of Eden considering the ontological and genealogical aspects of the experienced exile from nature. The article first considers the theoretical context of the negative framing of food ethics. Demonstrating the consequences of the experience of food as abject, the article then goes on to discuss the exile from Eden as an explanatory myth for the perceptual inbetweenness of humankind. The aim of the article is to outline the genealogical markers of the negative framing of food ethics via the discussion of the exile from Eden. In the context of a new materialist understanding of the nature–culture continuum, the article depicts the exile as a perceptual rather than ontological divide that does not reflect a factual human inbetweenness but mirrors the objectification of nature by stripping the flesh of its spirit. Such reenvisioning is thought to be a pivotal aspect for mitigating the affectual abjectivity of food and recapturing the factual entanglement of body–environment to enable affirmative environmental ethics.

Consumers' intention toward buying ethically produced products in Bangladesh

PurposeWhile many companies begin to promote ethically produced products, much remains to be known about consumers' buying intention toward these products. This paper attempts to integrate the theory of planned behavior and the Hunt–Vitell theory of marketing ethics to explore the buying intention toward ethically produced food products in a developing economy.Design/methodology/approachData were collected through a questionnaire survey in Bangladesh. Structural equation modeling technique was used to test the research model.FindingsResearch findings showed that deontological evaluation and teleological evaluation have significantly positive effects on perceived behavioral control and subjective norm. Perceived behavioral control, subjective norm, attitude, hedonic and utilitarian value have significantly positive effects on buying intention toward ethically produced foods.Originality/valueThe results are practically and theoretically meaningful because the integrated model holds well explanatory power to predict consumers' intention toward buying ethical foods and thereby understand consumers' ethical decision-makings.

New Omnivorism: a Novel Approach to Food and Animal Ethics

New omnivorism is a term coined by Andy Lamey to refer to arguments that – paradoxically – our duties towards animals require us to eat some animal products. Lamey’s claim to have identified a new, distinctive position in food ethics is problematic, however, for some of his interlocutors are not new (e.g., Leslie Stephen in the nineteenth century), not distinctive (e.g., animal welfarists), and not obviously concerned with eating animals (e.g., plant neurobiologists). It is the aim of this paper to bolster Lamey’s argument that he has identified a novel, unified, and intriguing position (or set of positions) in animal ethics and the philosophy of food. We distinguish new omnivorism from four other non-vegan positions and then differentiate three versions of new omnivorism based on the kinds of animal products they propose we consume. We conclude by exploring a range of argumentative strategies that could be deployed in response to the new omnivore.

ETIKA MENGKONSUMSI MAKANAN YANG TERTUANG DALAM HADITS SUNAN AT-TIRMIDZI NO. INDEKS 2302

Healthy is everyone's dream, because with healthy humans can carry out their activities smoothly. In Islam there is also a recommendation to live a healthy life, because if Muslims are healthy, the quality of their worship will automatically increase. So how does Islam guide its people to stay healthy? One of them is not to overdo it in eating, this is the focus of research in writing this thesis.
 This study uses a literature review which then after finding the results compares the hadith with health sciences. We can use the studied hadith as our guide or not to live a healthy life. Therefore, the problem that will be raised or researched is the takhrij hadith and the criticism of the sanad matan about food ethics contained in the hadith narrated by At-Tirmidhi, which is a reference that was appointed as research material.
 It is hoped that Muslims can actualize this hadith in real life as a manifestation that Muslims love their Prophet and as human instincts desire a healthy life which ultimately increases the quality of our worship. This research was carried out by mentakhrij hadith as research, after finding the results then comparing the hadith with health sciences. We can use the studied hadith as our guide or not to live a healthy life. In the end, this research will assess the quality of the hadith that is being researched so that it is feasible or not to be used as evidence and guidance for Muslims.
 In a hadith narrated by Imam At-Tirmidhi, it is sufficient for the son of Adam to fill his stomach with a third for food, a third for drink and a third for breathing. It is hoped that Muslims can actualize this hadith in real life as a manifestation that Muslims love their Prophet and as human instincts desire a healthy life which ultimately increases the quality of our worship.

Stoicism and Food Ethics

The norms of simplicity, convenience, unfussiness, and self-control guide Diogenes the Cynic, Zeno of Citium, Chrysippus, Seneca, Musonius Rufus, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius in approaching food. These norms generate the precept that meat and dainties are luxuries, so Stoics should eschew them. Considerations of justice, environmental harm, anthropogenic global climate change, sustainability, food security, feminism, harm to animals, personal health, and public health lead contemporary Stoics to condemn the meat industrial complex, debunk carnism, and select low input, plant-based foods.

To Live is to Devour Others

This paper studies how Ishida Sui’s Tokyo Ghoul creates its typical sense of “tragedy,” by stressing the injustice inherent in every act of eating, and by generalizing the model of nutrition to every ethically laden act. Ishida undermines the Kantian principle that “ought implies can,” depicting a twisted world which forces us into wrongdoing: we have to eat, but there is no Other we can eat with moral impunity. Still, his characters provide some ethical models which could be implemented in our everyday food ethics, given that the tragicality spotted by Ishida is not that alien to our food system: food aesthetics, nihilism, amor fati, living with the tragedy, and letting ourselves be eaten are the options Ishida offers to cope with the tragedy, to approach the devastation our need for food brings into the world in a more aware and charitable way. The examination of Ishida’s narrative device, conducted with the mediation of thinkers such as Lévinas, Ricoeur, Derrida, and other contemporary moral philosophers, shall turn the question: “how to become worthy of eating?” into the core problem for food ethics.

Principles of foodservice ethics: a general review

PurposeMoral aspects of food are gaining increased attention from scholars due to growing complexity of the food system. The foodservice system is a complex arrangement of stakeholders, yet has not benefited from similar scholarly attention on the moral facets. This gap is of significance given that the foodservice system has increased in importance with the larger proportion of food consumed in foodservice environments. This paper aims to focus on the foodservice system with the goal of applying moral perspectives associated with the theoretical discussion on the principles of food ethics.Design/methodology/approachFood ethics is described within the theoretical framework of three principles, namely, autonomy, justice and well-being. These ethical principles are reviewed in context of the foodservice system comprised of food distribution (supply chains), preparation (foodservice establishments) and consumption (consumer demand). The review also includes international perspectives on foodservice system ethics to assess relativism (versus universalism) of moral issues.FindingsAs the foodservice system increases in complexity, greater discussion is needed on the ethics of this system. This study observes that ignoring ethical principles can negatively impact the ability of consumers, businesses and communities to make informed choices, and on their well-being. Alternatively, a focus on understanding the role of food ethics can provide an anchor for research, practice and policy development to strengthen the foodservice system. While these moral principles are universal truths, they will require relative introspection globally, based on local experiences.Originality/valueThis paper presents a moral principle-based description of food ethics that incorporates the various components of the expanding foodservice system.

Building an Ethnic Food Ethic: The Case of the Ngigua Indigenous People of Southern Puebla, Mexico.

Food ethics in the indigenous context is associated with a historical and profound relationship that indigenous groups have with nature. To address this relationship and identify the food uses associated with the maguey plant from a biocultural perspective among the Ngigua indigenous people living in the municipality of Tlacotepec de Benito Juárez in Puebla, the three main communities in the municipality of Tlacotepec de Benito Juárez that make use of the maguey plant were chosen. The study was carried out with a qualitative approach, using a semi-structured interview as a research technique. The analysis carried out recognises the importance of the maguey plant as a biocultural resource for the Ngigua in a context of ethical deliberation. Among the food uses associated with the maguey plant, the following are identified: pulque (a drink of pre-Hispanic origin) and red worm. Women play an important role, participating in 80% of the preparation of both foods. The cultural environment of the maguey is a way of life that, in the case of the Ngigua people, represents a strategic element for survival. In times of food crisis, the study shows how ethnic food strategies in a context of ethical deliberation can constitute an alternative for the design of food solutions in territories with food shortages.

Eating Insects: A Christian Ethic of Farmed Insect Life

Proponents of entomophagy have argued that the farming of insects offers many advantages when contrasted with more traditional farming practices. This article explores the place of insect farming within a wider Christian food ethic and argues that insect farming has much to recommend it. However, through exploring the role of animal agriculture within the ideological structures of anthropocentrism, a more ambiguous picture of the ethics of insect farming emerges. This belies a simple endorsement or denunciation of insect farming as an ethical alternative to the farming of larger animals. Moreover, the example of insect farming reveals that Christian food ethics needs to radically reimagine the entire food provisioning system if it is to inculcate substantive change in human relationships with nonhuman animals.

‘If I could afford an avocado every day’: Income differences and ethical food consumption in a world of abundance

This study explores how ethical food consumption is framed in the accounts of ordinary people living in affluent societies, with a particular focus on income differences. Research on ethical consumption often associates ‘ethical’ with the consumption of certain predefined products. This study leaves the question of the content of ethical consumption open for empirical investigation. Further, instead of focusing only on the moment of purchasing, this study considers how people with different income levels relate to both food consumption and waste. The analysis draws from qualitative interviews with 60 people living in Canada and Finland. The analysis identified the techniques, subjects and norms through which the question ethical food consumption is posed by the informants and how they framed these issues with regard to income. The findings underline that ethical consumption is a socially constructed, contested and even internally contradictory discourse. Differences in income do not only mean differences in the role that money plays in food choices but also in what kind of consumption people consider worth pursuing. Further, differences in income dictate differences in how people are morally positioned vis-à-vis abundance. For people with a higher level of income, moral blame is asserted on wasteful consumption habits. For the people with a low income, in turn, it is ethically condemnable to refuse to rejoice at the abundance around us. The findings indicate that even in a society where the rhetoric of choice is prominent both as a right and as an obligation by which people ought to display ethical agency, the ethics of choice is tied to the resources available for consumption. People with a severely low income occasionally enjoy the trickling down of abundant treats and surprises. However, for them, occasional indulgence causes not only pleasure but also trouble.

Environment or Economy? Food Concerns and Sustainable Food Transitions in the UK

Recent years have seen the emergence of calls for the transformation of food systems to make these more responsive to environmental, access and health challenges. Addressing how the UK food system may best meet these challenges, this article develops understanding of the multiple food concerns that guide practices of food provisioning at the intersection between markets and domestic life. Combining insights from a survey questionnaire and qualitative fieldwork from research that was part of the EU Horizon2020 SafeConsume project, we depict how practices of food provisioning are guided by concerns driven by economic and environmental logics. The findings suggest economy is prevalent while environmental food ethics are marginalised. The conclusion discusses how the adopted practice theoretical approach, which combines an analysis of the socio-material arrangements of provisioning and the relationship between food concerns and higher order considerations, advances understanding of the nature of food concerns and the challenges of sustainable food transitioning.

Designing food packaging to present healthy and ethical diets to the New Chinese middle classes

ABSTRACT ‘Healthy’ and ‘ethical’ food is one of the fastest-growing food trends around the world. Yet scholars in this journal have shown that what this means in many territories tends to be dominated by Western-centric concepts. They call for the need to decenter the dominant Euro-American and Anglo-centric food scholarship in order to throw light on these processes. To better understand food globalization, one must consider how regional history, culture, economics, and politics foster a complex dynamic of global-local and West-East flows. Aligning with these concerns, we analyze food packages from China marketed at a rapidly growing health and ethical food market. Using an in-depth qualitative method, Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis, we examine the discursive and material power of healthy and ethical food products as these are communicated through packaging designs, showing how these carry ideas, value, and identities. We explore how this might be understood in the context of where such designs target an emerging Chinese middle class, concerned about food integrity, but also who seek out distinction and modern cosmopolitanism. We ask how the ideas carried by the packages might shape and steer local understandings of healthy and ethical food.

The taste of compassion: Influencing meat attitudes with interhuman and interspecies moral appeals

Consumers of meat products are generally shielded from the moral dissonance associated with the killing of livestock. Nonetheless, consumers increasingly look for ways to reduce or avoid meat in their diets due to concerns about individual health and the harmful global impacts of meat production. Campaigns that promote plant-based diets seek to facilitate such efforts by appealing to consumers' compassion, but the effects of such moral appeals on immediate food choice have not been studied. The literature on the psychology of meat consumption, its gendered associations in western cultural contexts are reviewed, and a compassion appraisal model for ethical food choice is tested. In a longitudinal restaurant field study and three laboratory experiments, the effects of interhuman as well as interspecies compassion appeals on meat-containing vs. meatless food choices are investigated. Compassion mediates ethical food choices, but is moderated by denial of the harmful consequences of meat production. Threats to masculinity that are often associated with meat advertising increase men's likelihood to choose meat instead of a vegetarian option. Overall, results indicate that men are less amenable to reduce their meat consumption and that they evaluate vegetarian options as less palatable when exposed to compassion appeals. These effects were opposite for women. Implications for meatless food products and for consumer well-being are discussed.

Fostering ethical consumption in food sector: Insights from the Italian Solidarity Purchasing Groups

PurposeThe paper aims at investigating antecedents and predictors of consumers' buying and consumption processes within the Italian Solidarity Purchasing Groups (SPGs) to enrich current debate about drivers and levers on which act for fostering ethical consumption in food sector.Design/methodology/approachBuilding upon the theory of planned behavior (TPB) a theoretical model is proposed for depicting possible antecedents and predictors of consumers' buying and consumption processes in food sector. The validity of the model has been tested via partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) using SmartPLS for analyzing primary data collected through a structured questionnaire from 354 consumers engaged in SPGs.FindingsWithin the domain of food buying and consumptions through SPGS, results show that consumers' behavior intention (BI) is influenced by consumers' attitude (ATT) and perceived behavioral control (PBC). Moreover, the research also demonstrates that consumers' ATT is influenced by consumers' ethical self-identity (ETH), consumers' willingness to support local economy (SLE), and food safety concern (FSC).Originality/valueThe study contributes to the ongoing debate on sustainable consumerism focusing the attention on SPGs as emerging social organizations inspired by ethical food consumption. Both theoretical development and empirical evidences enrich current knowledge about drivers and levers on which act for fostering ethical consumption in food sector.

Consumers’ perceptions of food ethics in luxury dining

PurposeThis paper aims to draw on the sociocultural dimensions of food luxury consumption as a new theoretical foundation to explore the consumers’ perceptions of ethical food production and consumption practices within luxury gastronomic restaurants.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted a contextualized, qualitative exploration of French luxury dining settings among 35 consumers with different profiles, food cultural backgrounds and gastronomic knowledge. Drawing on Thompson’s analysis framework, the authors captured the narratives beyond the stories told by participants that describe their perceptions and the meanings they assign to ethical food practices in Michelin-starred restaurants.FindingsThe results illustrate how consumers with different profiles perceive ethical food practices within luxury restaurants. The authors identified three segments: novice, advanced and confirmed according to participants’ acquaintance with luxury gastronomy codes and values. These three profiles served as a framework to examine consumers’ perceptions of ethical food forms – environmental sustainability, food well-being and cultural heritage – within the luxury dining setting.Research limitations/implicationsThe study revealed no one dominant form of ethical food practices as emphasized in prior studies. Rather, there are multiple forms, including functional, hedonic and symbolic values, related to the degree of familiarity and knowledge of consumers in terms of their luxury gastronomic experiences. The findings show that the perception of ethical food practices within luxury restaurants can encompass additional dimensions such as food well-being and cultural preservation and transmission. This information can enrich the restaurant sustainability literature that principally focuses on health, community and the ecological aspects of food ethics in restaurants. Although this study suggests numerous new insights, there are limitations related to focusing on the French food culture. However, these limitations can help us develop other opportunities for future research.Practical implicationsThe findings of this study provide luxury professionals and marketers with key insights into effective strategies to integrate sustainable practices while enhancing the luxury experience. The findings show that to encourage luxury businesses and restaurants to promote sustainable practices, it is necessary to enhance the functional, social, emotional and cultural dimensions of the perceived benefits of offering sustainable luxury experiences and reducing the constraints related to sustainability.Social implicationsWith its focus on the luxury dining settings underpinning the ethical food practices from the perspective of consumers, this research offers novel insights for researchers and luxury professionals interested in ethical and sustainable business practices.Originality/valueThis research suggests a new way to study sustainability and ethical food production and consumption practices in luxury dining settings – namely, as multiple, culturally embedded perceptions related to three main profiles of luxury gastronomy consumers: novice, advanced and confirmed.

Exploring Food Cultures through Art: Meeting People Where They Are at

Engaging people in critical conversations about food practices is often challenging. In this paper, we explore how an exhibition was used as an educative site to explore food insecurity and food cultures and to promote food ethics and healthy eating. Surveys and interviews from the opening night of an exhibition were collected and Bourdieu’s habitus was used to theoretically inform analysis. The diversity of artworks displayed were found to provoke critical reflection about food cultures among participants. Findings revealed the exhibition was a non-intrusive space for meeting people ‘where they were at’ in understandings of food and food practice. Artworks were found to evoke reflections on food as a cultural phenomenon and as a deeply personal component of everyday worlds. The tensions in making food choices and food as agentic in participants lives were highlighted. Findings suggest that exhibitions may support critical engagement with food practice when audiences are given opportunities to discuss their thoughts and ideas.