Is it possible to eat with a clear conscience?

INTRODUCTION:

While humanity has traditionally struggled to put any sort of food on the table, most westerners now live in a world today where our food choices are almost limitless. But as our food options multiply, so do the methods of killing, raising, transporting, preparing, and engineering food for our consumption. What we choose to eat may help perpetuate cruel or unjust treatments of animals, utilize natural and social resources that have a profound impact on the well-being of others around the world, and negatively impact the environment in myriad ways.

Is it possible to eat with a clear conscience?

INSTRUCTOR PREPARATION:

• Reading of suggested materials below

• General understanding of the major issues in question:
  
  • The general number of animals killed annually for food consumption.
  • How these animals are typically treated by various types of food producers
  • The central issues of the debate on moral protections for animals
  • The cost of food that claims to be more ethical
  • The general impact of various eating choices on our health system
  • The meanings of popular ethcial eating labels used today (e.g. locavore, vegan, etc.)

LIST OF SUGGESTED MATERIALS TO BE READ BEFORE CLASS:

The resources below are intended to give the reader an introduction to the problem that presents them with some of the major issues of the debate without going into much detail about any specific issue.

General Information:

• Tackling the ethics of eating by Mary MacVean, Los Angeles Times (Apr. 22, 2009)

• The Omnivore’s Delusion: Against the Agri-intellectuals by Blake Hurst, The American:Journal of the American Enterprise Instituete (July 30, 2009)

• Gourmet Magazine's Food Politics Section

Impact on the Environment:

• The Impact of Industrialized Animal Agriculture on the Environment by The Humane Society of the United States

• Carbon 101 by Jocelyn C. Zuckerman, Gourmet Magazine (Sep. 17, 2009)

• Swallowing Eco-Hype by Christina Gillham, Newsweek (Sep. 23, 2009)

Impact on Animals:

• The Welfare of Animals in the Meat, Egg, and Dairy Industries by The Humane Society of the United States

• Farm Animal Statistics: Slaughter Total by The Humane Society of the United States

• The Case for Animal Rights by Tom Regan

• Factory Farms Research by The Humane Society of the United States

IN-CLASS ACTIVITIES:

 Watch:

• Bill Moyers interviews Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dillema Bill Moyer's Journal, Nov. 28, 2008 (Video)
• Top 3 Reasons Not to Eat Fish by PETA (Video)

• KFC Does Chicken Wrong by Al Sharpton for PETA (Video)

Do: Ask students to think about and discuss the following questions:

• Are most people faced with ethical questions about what to eat, or are these questions that concern only the well-enough for whom food choices have little financial impact?
• The western world considers it immoral to kill or eat some animals (e.g. dogs and cats), but not others (e.g. cows and chickens). What is the underlying justification of such a view of our relationship to other animals? Is this a morally meaningless prejudice towards the cute and fuzzy, or do we have good reasons to draw this sort of line between the species?
• What makes a living being worthy of some moral protections?
• Are there moral limits to how we can treat the animals we raise to be killed for food?
• What should one's primary concern when determining how to eat ethically?
• What are some of the environmental implications of our eating choices? How do weigh these against the effects these choices have on animals and other people?

* For additional ideas on assignments and lesson plan you might develop with this material, visit our Suggestions for incorporating lessons ethics into your course page.