The Taste for Ethics

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvi

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2. Part I -Food and Ethics

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 2-2

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   2. Eating, Society and Ethics

      Pages 3-30

3. Part II -The Intellectualization of Food

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 32-32

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   2. Food to Science: On the Intellectualization of Food

      Pages 33-60

   3. The Storylessness of Food

      Pages 61-92

4. Part III - Food Ethics and the Production History

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 94-94

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   2. Tracing the Production History

      Pages 95-137

   3. Food Ethics as the Ethics of the Trace

      Pages 139-165

   4. Traceability and Food Ethics

      Pages 167-202

5. Back Matter

   Pages 203-212

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This book marks a new departure in ethics. In our culture ethics has first and foremost been a question of “the good life” in relation to other people. Central to this ethic was friendship, inspired by Greek thought (not least Aristotle), and the caritas concept from the Judaeo-Christian tradition. Later moral philo- phers also included man’s relation to animals, and it was agreed that the m- treatment of animals was morally reprehensible. But no early moral teaching discussed man’s relation to the origin of foodstuffs and the system that p- duced them; doubtless the question was of little interest since the production path was so short. The interest in good-quality food is of course an ancient one, and healthy eating habits have often been underlined as a condition for the good life. But before industrialization the production of this food was easy to follow. As a rule, that is no longer the case. The field of ethics must therefore be extended to cover responsibility for the production and choice of foodstuffs, and it is this food ethic that Christian Coff sets out to trace.

• ethical consumption
• ethics
• food ethics
• morality
• philosophy
• production history
• traceability

From the reviews:

“This book makes the case for an ethical understanding of food consumption. Christian Coff notes that a growing number of consumers are making ethics a central part of their food consumption choices. … Coff’s arguments and analyses are very intriguing and convincing. I would recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in understanding the difficult and complex nature of creating an ethical and values-based food system.” (Michael A. Long, Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, Vol. 22, 2009)

• CVU Zealand Ankerhus College of Nutrition & Health, Soroe, Denmark

  Christian Coff

Policies and ethics