Ethics of Food

(3-4 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

A common notion is: we are what we eat. In this course we analyze some of the core discussions on how we eat and produce food in different societies around the world. We look at political, economic, social and cultural dimensions and cover themes such as animal ethics, environment, health, food distribution, world hunger and bioengineered food. We seek to answer ethical and political questions like; should we eat animals? How does food effect our health? Can (and should) politics change what people eat? How is food a part of our culture? What are our responsibilities toward our environment when we produce food? Do we have a responsibility to reduce hunger in the world and how can we do it? Should we embrace or avoid GMOs and bioengineered food? Furthermore, we analyze the politics of our food systems. We look at the decision-making processes in the USA, EU and Denmark and ask; who decides what, for whom, why and how? We will explore what people eat, why they eat it, how it has changed over time, and how it will most likely keep changing. We ask how political actors (including NGO's) influence this development. Tokyo, Japan This course focuses on the ethics of these decisions. We will delve into how moral considerations may play a role in your reasoning. It will introduce a number of important moral debates such as whether we have any obligations towards non-human animals, the environmental and social consequences of our eating habits and whether we are morally obliged to change them.