When I first saw the topic of “Food Ethics”, I immediately thought of the treatment of the animals that are being used for their resources. In my opinion, it is morally right to make sure that the animals being used for their resources are treated in the best way possible. A lot of people choose to not eat meat because they believe that meat eating involves painful suffering to the animals that are killed for food. When someone decides not to eat meat for that reason, then they are being ethical ( Food Ethics Council, 2023).
I personally do not eat meat because I care about the wellbeing of animals and the environment. I feel like I am being ethically responsible. A question that I found interesting in an article by the Food Ethics Council (2024) is “what makes a choice ethical?” The Council goes on to state that an ethical choice is one that is defined by our values and our principles(Food Ethics Council, 2023). Another question that I thought of was “how do our food choices reflect our personal values.” For example, someone might consume a plant-based diet which may reflect their personal values of being sustainable, caring for animals and bettering their health. I think that those are important questions to ask because everyone might have different definitions of being ethical.
https://fisher.osu.edu/blogs/leadreadtoday/measuring-value-ethics-business
As there are a lot of unethical labor practices, I think that consumers should boycott the companies that enforce those unethical practices. For example, the small salary that workers gain from working long, intense hours should be juxtaposed with the prices we pay for those products since not even half of what consumers pay gets put into the workers’ pockets ( Food Ethics Council, 2023).
Another way that food can be ethical is by reducing food waste. The reduction of food waste betters the environment by decreasing the production of greenhouse gasses (Johns Hopkins, 2024). Saving food also means saving money and possibly saving other families in need. In a world where food waste is reduced, I wonder how different it would be. Would there be bigger families due to the reliability of no food waste aka no hunger? There would be a significant decrease of greenhouse gasses emitted which would improve life just a little. I think that this hypothetical situation would extend the life of Earth as the resources would be more conserved and less energy would be used. We as a society need to make more mindful choices in our food waste and diet to see a significant change in the world.
Works Cited
Food Ethics Council. (2023, March 29). What is food ethics? https://www.foodethicscouncil.org/food-ethics/what-is-food-ethics/.
Food Ethics Council. (2024) Fair and Resilient Food Systems. https://www.foodethicscouncil.org/food-ethics/what-is-food-ethics/.