Ethics of Food

Quinoa on sale in Utah

The other day at the supermarket we saw this display of quinoa on sale. $2.99 a pound. Quinoa has become one of the latest food fads, partly because it is "ancient" but also because it is a source of complete protein, as well as calcium. It's also gluten free. Even NASA studied it as a space food. It's featured in the popular Ancient Grains cereal at Costco (along with spelt, kamut, khorasan wheat, and amaranth).

Now the UN has declared 2013 as the "International Year of Quinoa."

http://www.rlc.fao.org/en/about-fao/iyq-2012/

Apart from the health benefits, what are the environmental and economic implications of expanding production of this traditional food? The New York Times and the British newspaper The Guardian have both published articles about the rising price of quinoa, which has helped farmers in the Andean countries but has also made it too expensive for them to eat. So instead of quinoa, they're eating more noodles and rice. Chronic malnutrition in children has increased in quinoa-growing areas.

This is only one example of how our food choices involve ethical issues we usually don't think about. Yet everything we eat has some environmental impact. Do you know what you're eating? 

Here are some references:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/20/world/americas/20bolivia.html?_r=2&

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/16/vegans-stomach-unpalatable-truth-quinoa

 http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/jan/25/quinoa-good-evil-complicated

 http://aiq2013.org/en/

 

Sharks

One reflection of a society's ethics is whether it uses or abuses natural resources, including animal and plant species.

Great White Shark in South Africa

Sharks are critical species on the oceans' ecosystems. Some societies have made a strong effort to protect sharks, for example; others continue to slaughter them primarily for shark fin soup, which has little nutritional value.
When we were in South Africa in 2012, we went cage diving with Great White sharks. Our hosts told us their numbers are declining rapidly. They hadn't seen a baby Great White in two years. People catch them for their jaws, which can sell for as much as $150,000 each.
Other shark species are being decimated for shark fin soup. One of my students sent an article that led to Alex Hofford's blog. He's based in Hong Kong and took photos of shark fins drying on the roof of a building there.

Rooftop shark fins - http://alexhofford.com/blog

Close up on shark fins - http://alexhofford.com/blog

Apparently some of these shark fins came from Brazil, packaged by a company named "Amazon Catfish, Ltd." I've seen videos of similar facilities in Central America as well.

The horror of shark fin soup has been widely documented, but the "delicacy" continues to be served in Asian restaurants around the world (not only in China). There are restaurants in the U.S. that serve shark fin soup. Investigators are using DNA to detect it. Here's one source of information about such restaurants you can check:
http://awionline.org/content/restaurants-currently-offering-shark-fin-soup
Here's a source for such restaurants in other countries: http://www.stopsharkfinning.net/boycott.htm

We usually discuss this as a case in my environmental ethics classes. Most students have never eaten shark fin soup, but I've had a few students from Asia who said they grew up with it but will never eat it again.

So we're making progress, little by little.