Encouraging and Supporting Publicly Engaged Philosophical Research and Practices

Food Ethics

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Considering issues of food regulation, food as a human right, food access, and all related. Led by Jonathan H. Marks, Director Penn State's Bioethics program and Associate Director, Rock Ethics Institute

Website: http://rockethics.psu.edu/bioethics/
Location: Penn State Rock Ethics Institute
Members: 58
Latest Activity: 13 hours ago

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Food Ethics Lecture Series/Webcasts Sponsored by Penn State's Rock Institute Bioethics Group

LECTURE 4: Caroline Smith DeWaal, Director, Food Safety Program, Center for Science in the Public Interest: "The Food Safety Modernization Act: Creating a Level Playing Field that Promotes Ethics in the Industry". Live lecture and webcast, Nov. 14th, 3 p.m.

Caroline Smith DeWaal is the director of the food safety program for the Center for Science in the Public Interest and co-author of Is Our Food Safe? A Consumer’s Guide to Protecting Your Health and the Environment (Three Rivers Press, 2002). She represents CSPI before Congress and in the regulatory arena on a broad range of food safety issues. Ms. DeWaal is the leading consumer analyst on laws and regulations governing food safety, and she has testified more than twenty times on pending food safety issues before the United States Congress. She also maintains and publishes a listing of foodborne illness outbreaks in the United States organized by food source. She has presented papers on food safety at over 100 scientific and public policy conferences. She has participated in a number of World Health Organization consultations on food safety and is currently an expert advisor on its Integrated Surveillance of Antibiotic Resistance project. She has participated in several national advisory committees to USDA and FDA, and was recently selected as a member of the Food Safety Modernization Act Surveillance Working Group of the Office of Infectious Diseases, CDC Board of Scientific Counselors. She represents the International Association of Consumer Food Organizations at Codex Alimentarius. DeWaal graduated from the University of Vermont and Antioch School of Law. She has taught university classes and courses on national and global food issues. A native of Vermont, and now a resident of Maryland, DeWaal lives with her husband and two children outside of Washington, D.C.

Antiquated laws have led to a crisis in confidence in the safety of the nation's food supply. Large outbreaks linked to cantaloupes, eggs, and peanut butter have caused consumers and Congress to question the effectiveness of the food safety program run by the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, signed into law in January 2011, gives FDA greater authority to require and oversee industry-run food safety control programs. Will the new law provide enough new protections to restore consumer confidence? Can companies be trusted to improve the safety of the food supply?

November 14, 2011
3:00 p.m.
Foster Auditorium, Paterno Library

LECTURE 3: Prof. David Castle. "Personalized Nutrician: Ethical and Regulatory Aspects." webcast Oct. 24th at 3 p.m. Translating insights from the human genome project (HGP) into innovations that improve health care, like more and better diagnostics, will occupy an entire generation of researchers. A central motivation underlying the HGP has been to bridge the gap between generaliZed human genomic knowledge and individual genetic applications. Personalized medicine remains in the future, but achieving some measure of personalization in nutrition may have better prospects. Nutritional genomics and genetics—aka "nutrigenomics"—has been the object of intense ethical and regulatory scrutiny, however, in part because of early direct-to-consumer offers. While concerns about safety must be explored, an overarching framework for assessing risks and benefits has not been agreed upon, much less deployed. A piecemeal approach to weighing ethical and regulatory considerations regarding new science and technology raises problems that will be discussed in the context of personalized nutrition. To access the webcast, click here: http://rockethics.psu.edu/bios/castle.shtml and then on mediasite icon.

LECTURE 2: OCTOBER 11TH, 3P.M. PROF. OLIVIER DE SCHUTTER. "A TALE OF FOUR HUNGERS.'

The next webcast lecture sponsored by the Rock Ethics Institute features Professor Olivier De Schutter, Professor of Law, University of Louvain; Visiting Professor, Columbia University; and UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food.
His most recent book is International Human Rights Law (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2010).

His lecture is entitled: "A Tale of Four Hungers." To view the webcast live and participate, go to: http://rockethics.psu.edu/bios/deschutter.shtml OCTOBER 11TH, 3P.M. Lecture is available for viewing after the live event. Viewers with comments are welcome to converse here or on the Rock blog site at ;http://rockblogs.psu.edu/bioethics/

LECTURE 1:

Paul B. Thompson, W.K. Kellogg Professor of Agricultural, Food and Community Ethics, Michigan State University

"What Makes Food Good? The Terrain of Food Ethics and the Agrarian Tradition"

August 29, 2011

Foster Auditorium, Paterno Library, 3:00 p.m. EST

Paul B. Thompson, W.K. Kellogg Professor of Agricultural, Food and Community Ethics, Michigan State University

"What Makes Food Good? The Terrain of Food Ethics and the Agrarian Tradition"

Did you miss this event? You can view the video by clicking on this link, and then participate in the Rock Ethics Institute food ethics blog (accessible through the video link) OR return to this group and blog here. Rock Ethics Institute faculty and staff and Paul Thompson will participate in all discussions.

This lecture is a part of a Food Ethics lecture series hosted by the Rock Ethics Institute. For more information about this lecture series please visit:

http://rockethics.psu.edu/bioethics/events/food1112.shtml

Discussion Forum

USDA's MyPlate criticized for mixing science with "the influence of powerful agricultural interests"

Started by Jonathan H. Marks Sep 16, 2011. 0 Replies 0 Likes

Walter Willett, chair of nutrition at Harvard's School of Public Health argues that the USDA's MyPlate "mixes science with the influence of powerful agricultural interests, which is not the recipe…Continue

Tags: guidelines, bioethics, dietary, industry, ethics

My lecture at Penn State

Started by Paul B. Thompson Aug 28, 2011. 0 Replies 0 Likes

Here are links to a couple of short posts that touch on some of the topics I will be covering in the talk on Aug. 29, 2011,…Continue

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Comment by Paul B. Thompson on February 6, 2013 at 12:00pm: I'll be hosting a Friday table discussion on food ethics at the Association for Professional and Practical Ethics meeting in San Antonio, TX on March 1, 2013

Comment by Ike Sharpless on November 26, 2011 at 10:27am: Not to my knowledge, Michael - but I just posted it: I didn't attend (I live in Boston).

Comment by Michael T Stowers on November 25, 2011 at 11:53pm: @Ike, is there multimedia coverage of this?

Comment by Ike Sharpless on November 10, 2011 at 10:06pm: This seminar at George Washington looks interesting, for anyone in the area:

The George Washington University Seminar on Food will take place November 21, 2011. The seminar will address the market concentration of meat packing.

Discussion Featuring:

1) Mark Halverson, Staff Director, U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee

2) Barry C. Lynn, Senior Fellow, New American Foundation

3) Patrick Woodall, Research Director, Food & Water Watch

More info here: http://departments.columbian.gwu.edu/sociology/node/132

Comment by Ike Sharpless on October 14, 2011 at 7:54pm: Hi all - here are some links that might be of browsing interest to some of you (this is tangentially related to last weekend's workshop on agriculture and animal welfare).

A link to my Tufts course wiki, where we'll be talking about animals and food policy next week: http://animalethics.pbworks.com

A link to the archives section of my other wiki, which has some papers of mine that might be of interest: http://ikesharpless.pbworks.com/w/page/13341837/Other%20files%20and...

And a broad range of documents I've compiled on related topics...which may be of browsing interests - these are mostly just things I've bookmarked as they came across my radar: http://ikesharpless.pbworks.com/w/page/46916031/Supplemental%20food...

If anyone's in or around the Boston area and would be interested in guest-lecturing on these issues, I'm teaching a human-animal relations class at Tufts and will be teaching a food politics course next semester at UMass Lowell...do feel free to get in touch!

Ike

Comment by Sharon M. Meagher on October 3, 2011 at 4:52pm: The next webcast lecture sponsored by the Rock Ethics Institute features Professor Olivier De Schutter, Professor of Law, University of Louvain; Visiting Professor, Columbia University; and UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food.

His most recent book is International Human Rights Law (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2010).

His lecture is entitled: "A Tale of Four Hungers." To view the webcast live and participate, go to: http://rockethics.psu.edu/bios/deschutter.shtml OCTOBER 11TH, 3P.M. Lecture is available for viewing after the live event. Viewers with comments are welcome to converse here or on the Rock blog site at ;http://rockblogs.psu.edu/bioethics/

Comment by Ike Sharpless on September 14, 2011 at 10:01am: For anyone in the DC area in the coming week, this USDA "Future Trends in Animal Agriculture" should be engaging and broad-ranging. The topic this year is "The Polarization of Animal Welfare and Animal Rights Issues: Good or Bad for the Animals?", and there will be people from both animal ag and animal protection speaking. I wish I could make it. . . (http://www.animalsandsociety.org/events/details.php?id=206)

Comment by J. Britt Holbrook on August 31, 2011 at 1:09pm: Hi, Mark:

I feel the same way. But here's a slightly different way of asking my question: do you think it would be legitimate to invite him to campus as part of a philosophy department speakers series?

Comment by Mark Fisher on August 31, 2011 at 12:38pm: Hi Britt,

I didn't know much about him until the TV series last year. I have to say I was struck by the ethical focus of his work in West Virginia. Even more impressive, perhaps, was the courage he displayed in standing up to, patiently working with, and eventually winning over, pockets of misunderstanding and resistance within the community.

Comment by J. Britt Holbrook on August 31, 2011 at 12:21pm: Hi, Jonathan:

Thanks for the response! I asked for a couple of reasons:

1) I, myself, would consider him a food ethicist, despite the fact that his approach to food policy (for instance, in the public schools) diverges quite a bit from what a philosopher might do; and

2) I want to get a feel for where I stand vis-a-vis the other public philosophers on the site. This is kind of an experiment to help me figure that out.

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