The Ethics of Food

Food makes philosophers of us all. Death does the same . . . but death comes only once . . . and choices about food come many times each day. In The Ethics of Food, Gregory E. Pence brings together a collection of voices who share the view that the ethics of genetically modified food is among the most pressing societal questions of our time. This comprehensive collection addresses a broad range of subjects, including the meaning of food, moral analyses of vegetarianism and starvation, the safety and environmental risks of genetically modified food, issues of global food politics and the food industry, and the relationships among food, evolution, and human history. Will genetically modified food feed the poor or destroy the environment? Is it a threat to our health? Is the assumed healthfulness of organic food a myth or a reality? The answers to these and other questions are engagingly pursued in this substantive collection, the first of its kind to address the broad range of philosophical, sociological, political, scientific, and technological issues surrounding the ethics of food.

Autorentext
Gregory E. Pence is a medical ethicist with twenty years of experience reviewing significant cases in bioethics, and is professor in the School of Medicine and the Department of Philosophy at the University of Alabama. Pence has contributed to theNew York Times, Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, and the Journal of the American Medical Association. He is the author of Classical Cases in Medical Ethics: Accounts of the Cases that Shaped Medical Ethics, 3rd edition (2000) and Who's Afraid of Human Cloning? (1998).

Inhalt

Chapter 1
Chapter I: The Meaning of Food
Chapter 2 A Thing Shared
Chapter 3 How We Grow Food Reflects Our Virtues and Vices
Chapter 4
Chapter II: Eating Meat
Chapter 5 Animal Liberation and Vegetarianism
Chapter 6 Meat Is Good for You
Chapter 7
Chapter III: Starvation
Chapter 8 Lifeboat Ethics: The Case against Helping the Poor
Chapter 9 Golden Rice Is Fool's Gold
Chapter 10 Are We Going Mad?
Chapter 11
Chapter IV: Safety of Genetically Modified Foods
Chapter 12 The Unholy Alliance
Chapter 13 The FDA's Volte-Face on Food Biotech
Chapter 14 Dr. Strangelunch: Why Should We Learn to Love Genetically Modified Food
Chapter 15
Chapter V: Benefits / Dangers of Organic Food
Chapter 16 Organically or Genetically Modified Food: Which Is Better?
Chapter 17 The Benefits of Organic Food
Chapter 18
Chapter VI: Genetically Modified Food and Environmental Risks
Chapter 19 Genetic Engineering and Food Security
Chapter 20 GM Is the Best Option We Have
Chapter 21
Chapter VII: Food Biotechnology and Nature
Chapter 22 Biotechnology's Negative Impact on World Agriculture
Chapter 23 The Population / Diversity Paradox: Agricultural Efficiency to Save Wilderness
Chapter 24
Chapter VIII: Global Food Politics and Economics
Chapter 25 A Removable Feast
Chapter 26 From Global to Local: Sowing the Seeds of Community
Chapter 27
Chapter IX: The Food Industry
Chapter 28 The Hamburger Bacteria
Chapter 29 The United States Food Safety System