The Ethics of What We Eat
Just finished The Ethics of What We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter by Peter Singer and Jim Mason. Oy. Don’t eat chicken from any factory-farm producer like Tyson or Purdue, that’s all I can say.
No, I can say more: here are four ethical principals we should be demanding from our food producers [and telling our government representatives to demand] according to Singer and Mason:
1. Transparency-we have a right to know how our food is produced as well as accurate and unbiased info about what we are buying and how it’s produced.
2. Fairness-producing food should not impact the environment or humans; food production must be environmentally sustainable.
3. Humanity- inflicting significant suffering on animals is wrong. “Kindness and compassion toward all human and animals is better than indifference to the suffering of a sentient being”.
4. Social responsibility-all factory workers must have decent wage and working conditions.
Part 2 [i.e. clear tips about how to be a “conscientious omnivore”] in a tic...
No, I can say more: here are four ethical principals we should be demanding from our food producers [and telling our government representatives to demand] according to Singer and Mason:
1. Transparency-we have a right to know how our food is produced as well as accurate and unbiased info about what we are buying and how it’s produced.
2. Fairness-producing food should not impact the environment or humans; food production must be environmentally sustainable.
3. Humanity- inflicting significant suffering on animals is wrong. “Kindness and compassion toward all human and animals is better than indifference to the suffering of a sentient being”.
4. Social responsibility-all factory workers must have decent wage and working conditions.
Part 2 [i.e. clear tips about how to be a “conscientious omnivore”] in a tic...
Comments
jonah
soy, hmm well, there were a few months when i had cut out dairy but hadn't started eating meat; i was eating alot of soy-soynuts, edamame, soymilk, tofu, miso, soynutbutter. essentially i was over soying and my body wasn't digesting it, at all. so i cut it ALL out and tummy was better.
really too much of anything isn't great. in this case soy. it's been two years and except some soy lethicin that is in SO MUCH i'm still soy free...
ciao,
jonah
one of the reasons i was impressed when brandt beef invited me to visit them in california to see how their operation is run. the authors of ETHICS were rarely given that luxury; many of the factory-farm producers wouldn't even answer their phone calls much less show them around the chicken processing plant. very similar experience to TWINKIE, DECONSTRUCTED where he couldn't get the bleach makers to show him around [to see how bleached flour is made].