First Post

It has been a while now that I have been interested in ethical eating. I have taught about it, written about it, lectured about it. Seems only right to start blogging about it. Everyone else is blogging, why not me?

So here it is. An attempt to write about food and the values that it helps us express. Food is more than about nutrition and biology. It's about how we nourish our bodies and our souls. It's about how we connect with others and the earth.

Summer's the time when it is sometimes the easiest to eat ethically -- the bounty of the earth is all around us. And it is also sometimes the hardest -- graduation parties and cook-outs with others who might not share our ideas about food. Ethics is always about competing values, and here it comes to the fore again.

But since it is the time when people are growing their own, going to the farmer's market and enjoying seasonal foods, it is the time for me to start sharing about what I think about the ethics of food since so many people keep asking me how I got interested and how I think about it. Let the gustatory journey begin!

About How I Got Into the Ethics of Eating

I got interested in the ethics of food from an unlikely route. I am not a vegetarian, am only an accidental environmentalist (mostly because I am interested in the ethics of food), and I am not a farmer. I am a good cook and I do like to cook. But I got interested in the ethics of food because I am an applied ethicist. That's right, a full-fledged PHD holding ethicist. I teach philosophy, mostly applied ethics--and that's how I got interested in the ethics of food. I like to have concrete ways to live my values and to let my students know they can live theirs, too. Making choices about food is something we all do and we can do more or less ethically.