The Taste for Ethics: An Ethic of Food Consumption (The International Library of Environmental, Agricultural and Food Ethics)

This book marks a new departure in ethics. In our culture ethics has first and foremost been a question of “the good life” in relation to other people. Central to this ethic was friendship, inspired by Greek thought (not least Aristotle), and the caritas concept from the Judaeo-Christian tradition. Later moral philo- phers also included man’s relation to animals, and it was agreed that the m- treatment of animals was morally reprehensible. But no early moral teaching discussed man’s relation to the origin of foodstuffs and the system that p- duced them; doubtless the question was of little interest since the production path was so short. The interest in good-quality food is of course an ancient one, and healthy eating habits have often been underlined as a condition for the good life. But before industrialization the production of this food was easy to follow. As a rule, that is no longer the case. The field of ethics must therefore be extended to cover responsibility for the production and choice of foodstuffs, and it is this food ethic that Christian Coff sets out to trace. This book marks a new departure in ethics. In our culture ethics has first and foremost been a question of ‘the good life’ in relation to other people. Central to this ethic was friendship, inspired by Greek thought, and the caritas concept from the Judaeo-Christian tradition. But no early moral teaching discussed man’s relation to the origin of foodstuffs and the system that produced them; doubtless the question was of little interest since the production path was so short. Before industrialisation the production of food was easy to follow. As a rule that is no longer the case. The field of ethics must therefore be extended to cover responsibility for the production and choice of foodstuffs, and it is this food ethic that Christian Coff sets out to trace. In doing so he shows how the focus of ethics can be expanded from its concern for the good life with and for others to cover the good life in fair food production practices, and how not least through using our integrity or life coherence we can reflect ethically, or caringly, about living organisms, ecological systems and our human identity. From the foreword by Dr. Peter Kemp, Professor of Philosophy at the Danish University of Education The field of ethics must be extended to cover responsibility for the production and choice of foodstuffs. This book shows how the focus of ethics can be expanded from its concern for the good life with and for others to cover the good life in fair food production practices