Experts Extol Ethical Eating

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http://lomaprieta.sierraclub.org/TheLomaPrietan.asp?q=2008070801

 

The Loma Prietan - July/August 2008

 

Cooking Green

 

Experts Extol Ethical Eating

 

story and photos by Kay Bushnell

 

This issue's recipe: Vegan Lasagna

 

Crowds arrived at the Stanford auditorium expecting to hear journalist

Michael Pollan talk about food. To the surprise of many, all seats in

the auditorium and even standing room were taken early. Hundreds of

disappointed individuals, myself included, milled about in the lobby

and peered through the windows at the seats, aisles, and windowsills

completely covered with humanity. Stanford's series of films and

lectures on The Ethics of Food and the Environment, held January

through April, was a resounding success.

 

The guest speakers in the series, Michael Pollan, Marion Nestle, and

Peter Singer, challenged their audiences to think about the food they

eat and the role that popular culture and habit play in their food

choices. All speakers cast a wary eye on the mechanized mass

production and processing of most food today. Become informed about

your food, they urge. Ask yourself and others where it comes from, how

it is produced, and at what environmental cost. Is it healthy for you

and other forms of life? Is unwarranted animal suffering involved?

 

Michael Pollan, author of In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto,

participated in a public meeting with Stanford Dining representatives

before delivering his main address. He emphasized the role of

institutions in reforming America's food habits and their potential to

make an impact in the larger world. Institutions must be willing to

pay more, says Pollan. " The tipping point will come when

institutions such as universities vote with their money " and when

healthful food has the support of the " highest levels at the

university. " Eric Montell of Stanford Dining described Stanford's

" education through information " program about food. The

program invites farmers to campus to talk about the food they grow,

and dining halls feature a new, regionally grown item each month.

Pollan feels that learning about food and its carbon footprint is as

important as other kinds of learning at a university.

 

Marion Nestle, a professor at New York University and author of What

to Eat, cautions us to enter supermarkets fully aware that junk food

beckons in the center aisles. " Shop the perimeter, " she

counsels. " Don't buy anything found in the center aisles, or

anything with more than five ingredients, with health claims, or with

cartoons on the package. "

 

While organizers of the Stanford series may have been surprised by the

high attendance and enthusiasm generated by the events, Nestle was

not. She sees food as part of a social movement directly related to

contemporary issues such as childhood obesity and the global marketing

of junk foods.

 

The final speaker in the series was Peter Singer, Professor of

Bioethics at Princeton and author of The Way We Eat: Why Our Food

Choices Matter. Singer argues that ethical consideration of animals

should affect our food choices. In addition to the evidence for animal

consciousness, says Singer, the rationale for preventing animal

suffering by our food choices is that " pain is pain, no matter

what being experiences it. "

 

Singer has been a vegetarian since the early 1970s when he was at

Oxford University. He was eating meat and asked a colleague why he

wasn't eating it. His friend's response convinced Singer of the merit

of plant-based food. Today, Singer remembers his own moral awakening

on that occasion and advises others to " explain when you are

asked [why you are vegetarian]... don't be shy about setting an

example...and remember, factory farming is a wasteful form of

production that requires a lot of fossil fuel, so eating fewer-or

no-animal products will cut the amount of emissions for which you

are responsible. " Singer mentioned that on their ballots this

coming November Californians will have a chance to ban factory farms

from confining hens, pregnant sows, and calves in cages that are so

restrictive the animals cannot turn around or extend their

limbs.

 

At the end of Singer's presentation students sprang into lines to ask

him questions. Many of the questions were personal and practical, such

as how to keep to a plant-based diet while living in a culture

dominated by animal-based foods. One student posed his question

bluntly: " Professor Singer, do you ever cave? " Singer

advised him to hold to his ethical standards as much as possible but

not to be fanatical about it. His closing message to his audience:

" Living an ethical life gives you purpose and meaning. One's

beliefs and practices are in harmony, which yields satisfaction in

life. "

 

Loma Prieta Chapter member Kay Bushnell has taught plant-based cooking

and appeared as the Garden Gourmet in a community-access television

cooking series.

 

 

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