Year of Award
2020
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Type
Master of Arts (MA)
Degree Name
Philosophy
Other Degree Name/Area of Focus
Environmental Philosophy / Food Ethics
Department or School/College
Philosophy
Committee Chair
Deborah Slicer
Commitee Members
Christopher Preston, Dane Scott
Keywords
Environmental Philosophy, Environmental Ethics, Food Ethics, Politics of Food, Geography of Food, Ethics of Consumerism
Subject Categories
Applied Ethics | Environmental Studies | Ethics and Political Philosophy | International Relations | Nature and Society Relations | Other Philosophy | Place and Environment
Abstract
This thesis arose out of a moment of discord, while an environmental philosopher was eating blackberries in the middle of a blizzard in Missoula, Montana. What follows is an attempt to bridge the gap between our principles and our practices, by asking the questions: What does ethical eating look like? Is it possible within our current industrial food system? and If not, what needs to change? Responding to the publication of the 2019 EAT-Lancet report, this essay moves beyond thinking of ethical eating as “healthy” and “sustainable” and challenges the networks of suffering and labour that we take for granted every time we sit down to eat. This essay tells the truths of animals’ living conditions, migrants’ working conditions, and the history of inequitable transcultural relations that has brought us one of our most popular food staples: bananas. Telling these (hi)stories is a partial attempt to overcome the alienation that is a defining characteristic of our current food system. Then, utilising Steven Vogel’s notions of (social) practices and our responsibility for them, and Joan Tronto’s ethics of care, this essay attempts to show how consumer, producer, and policy maker can all do better to mitigate the suffering inherent in our current food system—the industrial food complex. I then discuss three solutions to improving our food system: transparency, auditing, and localisation. Finally, I give the reader an idea of what ethical eating might look like. I call upon my own experience of ethical eating over the past year to help illuminate some of the limitations of our current framework and encourage a “participation” approach on the individual level. I conclude that overcoming the alienation of the industrial food complex will require eating where one is and developing institutionalised networks of practices that compliment this individual practice by making it accessible in our communities.
Recommended Citation
Kushnir, André, "Ethical Eating: Overcoming Alienation in the Industrial Food System by Aligning Our Practices with Our Principles" (2020). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 11575.
https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/11575
Included in
Applied Ethics Commons, Environmental Studies Commons, Ethics and Political Philosophy Commons, International Relations Commons, Nature and Society Relations Commons, Other Philosophy Commons, Place and Environment Commons
© Copyright 2020 André Kushnir