COURSE DESCRIPTION AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

The focal point of the course is contemporary ethical issues of food, as related to both its production and consumption. That brings agriculture into the picture and demands critical reflection on certain agricultural developments, such as genetically modified food, but also calls for imagining sustainable solutions for the future.  

It also covers issues of optimal regulation of consumption of animals, fight against hunger versus care for the environment, quality of food, global famine, care for the farming class, as well as abundance and obesity prevalent in the Western world.  

Particular emphasis is given to risk perception and views on food safety, since ethics, as Socrates implied, is premised on epistemology; we ought to know that we do not know sufficiently about nature, human intervention, food, safety, and agriculture. 

Upon successful completion of the course the student will be able to: 

• Project new public responsibilities in the domain of agriculture
• Appropriate the ethical principles in food production and food consumption
• Realize the connection between food ethics and the politics of nutrition
• Argue for an economics as if people mattered