Main description:

Leading experts reveal ways that the future of food production for the world's burgeoning population can (and must) be both sustainable and ethical.

In the United States, food is abundant and cheap but loaded with hidden costs to the environment, human health, animal welfare, and the people who work in our food systems. The country's current food production systems lack diversity in crops and animals and are intensified but not sustainable, inhumane in the treatment of animals, and inconsiderate of labor. In order to feed the world's rapidly growing population with high-quality, ethically produced food, new food production systems are urgently needed. These new systems must be genetically diverse and environmentally sustainable, and they need to follow internationally recognized animal welfare and labor practices.

Feeding the World Well examines these costs of cheap food while presenting a unique framework for ethical food systems: the Core Ethical Commitments, which are designed to guide consumers in choosing foods that are aligned with their values while helping producers enhance the ethics of their practices and products. Edited by Alan M. Goldberg, the volume features contributions from leading ethicists and food systems experts. Addressing complex issues such as climate change, worker exploitation, obesity, antibiotic resistance, wasted food, and biotechnology, the book discusses the fundamental forces that have shaped, and will continue to shape, our food systems. It also describes some of the approaches that food companies and nonprofit organizations are using to address the ethical challenges facing these food systems. Finally, the book explains what the Core Ethical Commitments are (and what they are not), how they were developed, and how they might be used by food system actors.

By bringing together an all-star group of contributors from academia and industry, Feeding the World Well sets a new course for food production and how it is evaluated. By including the voices of industry leaders alongside those of researchers and regulators, the book prepares the food production industry for a world in which "ethical" or "sustainable" production practices are not only trendy but necessary to ensure that we can feed the world's growing population. Conceived as a textbook for food studies courses, this volume will appeal to anyone who is strongly interested in food, including conscious consumers, food industry leaders, researchers, and policy makers.

Contributors: Anne Barnhill, Martin W. Bloem, Jonathan Bloom, Nicole M. Civita, Claire Davis, Michiel van Dijk, Adele Douglass, Shauna Downs, Kevin Esvelt, Ruth Faden, Jessica Fanzo, Evan Fraser, Maisie Ganzler, Tara Garnett, Sara Glass, Alan M. Goldberg, Christopher Good, Meredith Kaufman, Gillian Kelleher, Frederick L. Kirschenmann, Herman B. W. M. Koeter, Jennifer Kuzma, Kees van Leeuwen, Robert Martin, Anne E. McBride, Suzanne McMillan, Tom Morley, Marion Nestle, Peter O'Driscoll, Lance B. Price, Marie Luise Rau, Bernard Rollin, Yashar Saghai, Susan A. Schneider, Ellen K. Silbergeld, Paul B. Thompson, Paul Willis, Sylvia Wulf

Contents:

List of Contributors
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Alan M. Goldberg

Part I. The Big Picture
1. Feeding the World (Well): The Moral Imperative
Jessica Fanzo
2. Malnutrition, Food Systems, and Climate Action
Martin W. Bloem

Part II. Food Systems in Context
3. The Agriculture We Deserve
Ellen K. Silbergeld
4. The Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production in America: Lessons Learned
Robert Martin
5. Agriculture in Transition
Frederick L. Kirschenmann
6. Agricultural Exceptionalism and the US Regulatory Landscape
Susan A. Schneider and Meredith Kaufman
7. US Oversight of GM Crops
Jennifer Kuzma
8. Conflicts of Interest in Food and Nutrition Research
Marion Nestle
9. Global Food Demand Projections: A Review
Michiel van Dijk, Yashar Saghai, Marie Luise Rau, and Tom Morley

Part III. Contemporary Challenges and Complexities in Food Ethics
Part III.A. Environment
10. Food, Environment, and Ethics
Tara Garnett
11. Water Utilization and Food
Kees van Leeuwen
12. The Impact and Opportunity of Wasted Food
Jonathan Bloom
13. Climate Change and Food Production: Big Worries, Uncertain Impacts
Evan Fraser
Part III.B. Producers and Laborers
14. Primary Agricultural Production: Crops and Farmers
Paul B. Thompson
15. Ethics over Exploitation: Urgent Moral Issues Associated with Labor and Communities in the Food System
Nicole M. Civita
16. Equitable Food Initiative
Peter O'Driscoll
Part III.C. Public Health
17. How Food Systems Support and Undermine Public Health, Nutrition, and Community Well-Being: Some Ethical Concerns and Controversies
Anne Barnhill
18. Food Safety
Herman B. W. M. Koeter
19. Antibiotic Resistance
Lance B. Price
20. Farm Animal Welfare and Human Health
Alan M. Goldberg
Part III.D. Animal Welfare
21. Animal Welfare
Bernard Rollin
22. Biotechnology and Animal Well-Being
Kevin Esvelt
23. Certified Humane
Adele Douglass

Part IV. Case Studies
24. Niman Ranch
Paul Willis
25. Menus of Change
Anne E. McBride
26. Bon Appetit Management Company
Maisie Ganzler
27. Wegmans
Gillian Kelleher
28. US Foods
Sylvia Wulf
29. Water Recirculating Aquaculture Systems and the Future for Land-Based, Closed-Containment Salmon Production
Christopher Good

Part V. The Core Ethical Commitments: A Framework for Ethical Food Systems
30. The Ethical Basis for Choose Food
Anne Barnhill, Nicole M. Civita, and Ruth Faden
31. The Core Ethical Commitments
Anne Barnhill, Nicole M. Civita, Claire Davis, Shauna Downs, Ruth Faden, Sara Glass, Alan M. Goldberg, Herman B. W. M. Koeter, Bernard Rollin, Paul B. Thompson, Kees van Leeuwen, and Suzanne McMillan
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