It’s funny how, sometimes when you start to think about one aspect of your life, you start looking more closely and more intensely. This whole diet thing? Well, officially the six week plan is over, but I don’t feel any desire to stop and revert to my “normal” diet. I started off wanting to put a stop to my bad eating habits, and I have, I think, but now I find I’m thinking more about how food is produced and the sorts of food that we are sold in the shops, and what do I want to eat?
Still pondering, especially having just read The ethics of what we eat by Peter Singer and Jim Mason (Text Publishing, Melbourne, 2006). Highly recommended.
The five ethical principles (pp.247-248) the authors believe should inform our dietary choices are:
Transparency: We have a right to know how our food is produced. If slaughterhouses had glass walls would we all be vegetarian? The descriptions of what animals go through to become that piece of chicken, steak, chop – not pleasant.
Fairness: Producing food should not impose costs on others. They make a good point, that we in the developed world are happy to have cheap food, but the true costs, in terms of pollution and degradation of the environment are often hidden (or we prefer not to think about it).
Humanity: Inflicting significant suffering on animals for minor reasons is wrong. “Kindness and compassion towards all, human and animal, is clearly better than indifference to the suffering of another sentient being.”
Social responsibility: Workers should have decent wages and working conditions.
Needs: Preserving life and health justifies more than other desires. “…[I]f we choose a particular food out of habit, or because we like the way it tastes, when we could have nourished ourselves equally well by making a different choice, then that choice has to meet stricter ethical standards.”
5 Comments
I’m trying to improve my eating habits as well, after our chat all those weeks ago. I’m having only fruit at breakfast and salads at lunchtime. In the evenings, i try to stick with veges as much as possible, but if i’m out with others or if it’s a hassle i just go with whatever’s there; same story for the weekend if we are at functions or whatever. It’s not been too difficult and i do feel better (not as bloated and lethargic), even with the flu that felled me.
I agree with you that we need to examine our food more closely. The fact that food production has such a huge impact on both the planet and on individual health, we shouldn’t go for the easy/uninformed option(s) all the time.
In grade 6 on a school camp the teachers took us on a visit to an abattoir. The were killing a big cow to show us how it was done. Feeling slightly sick I chose to go outside and play with the friendly goat who was mowing the weeds at the side of the building. You have reminded me of this with the first comment on Transparency…thank you for your thought provoking post.
TB-)
I tend to choose my food on the basis of sustainability, environmental impact etc these days. I wish there was more transparency in labelling, in particular, country of manufacturer.
jl I hope you get over that flu soon!
TB, The ethics of what we eat makes the point that our mass production of meat makes conditions really bad for animals and has bad consequences for the environment, too. All in the name of cheap food that is available anytime. In the past something like chicken might have been a special food, now we can eat KFC every night…
Penny I wish labels were clearer and more consistent!
I have been thinking about this issue a lot, and have been attempting to go vegetarian as part of a solution since I have started living alone again. Not because I think humans shouldn’t eat meat, but because of the tremendous cost to the planet of raising mass domestic animals in terms of water, land, lack of biodiversity, etc, and the cruelty involved in much of their lives and deaths. More of my solution is about eating only organic where at all possible – fruit & vegies, bread, dairy, breakfast cereal, soy sauce, coffee, nuts, everything. It is being more expensive, but I think it’s actually connected to the fact that though I’ve been even busier than usual, I haven’t caught a cold or flu this winter, despite many friends and colleagues coming down with lurgies and coughing in my face. My final act is to try and grow my own fruit and vegies, but that will be a much longer-term project as I’m a very ignorant gardener. I have planted herbs as a beginning, though.
I have got so that everytime I go somewhere like KFC I get a vivid mental image of chickens crammed into cages and pecking each other frantically to get some space – it combats the seductive odour pretty well.