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The Ethics of What We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter

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Philosophy has rarely considered the ethics of what we eat, because until very recently, we largely ate food grown on family farms and two generations ago most people were still pretty well acquainted with where their food came from. (Most grandparents or at least great grandparents have churned butter, pluicked a chicken, etc.) In today's world everything is pre-packaged and because we no longer have to think about it, we don't. The truth is we probably don't like or want to think about how the food gets to the supermarket. After all, it's tough enough to try and plan and shop for meals and then throw together something after a long day at the office. Add in trying to think about health concerns, trying to manage on a budget and hey, we have enough to worry about, right?

But it bothered me that I knew full well that if I had to kill my own food I would be a vegetarian...yet I love meat and just didn't want to give it up. So the last few years I bought organic and grass fed and cage free...and yet, I wondered, given all the articles about the meaninglessness of labels and the lack of real standards, am I paying more just to feel like maybe the animals are treated better, when in fact there is no difference? How bad have things gotten? Basically, bad enough that I feel I have to invest energy in changing my habits, or ok enough I can continue trying to focus on organics and grass fed/cage free meat and dairy, and that's enough for me?

I was hoping this book would help me answer that question. The truth is, I didn't look forward to reading it - I didn't want something preaching or someone trying throughout to get me to go vegan (great goal, don't know that I'm up for the task though). I am pleased to report that I didn't find it preachy and actually, it was quite an interesting read. There are some things I wish were covered that aren't, but I think the approach of selecting three families and looking at what they buy, then going behind the scenes and discussing the impacts of their choices, was well done.

If you enjoy philosophy and have any leanings, as I did, to consider more carefully the issue of today's diet and what you eat, I recommend this book. It can be hard to read in places. You don't want to believe how bad conditions really are in some factory animal farming - you kind of don't want to know - bit that doesn't mean you shouldn't know.

Ignorance is bliss. Reading this is not. But I would rather make informed choices and know the truth than continue to not think about the choices I make in the supermarket. If you decide to make changes, it's not that hard, as this book let's you know what to look for and questions to ask. For example, I was aware that beef needs to be not only grass fed, but ideally grass finished, but I never asked my organic beef grower about slaughter procedures used. And, I didn't know that when considering eggs I should look into not only free range free, but at are the chickens debeaked? I have a lot more information that I can use as a consumer to make smart choices after reading this book, both about vegetable and meat products. I have not had a problem going to local growers or producers and getting my questions answered, and if you want to be informed this book will help you make choices in your everyday food selections that benefit the environment and prevent creulty to animals. How far you go with it is entirely your choice. Topics covered include environmental impacts, third world country economics, worker conditions, fair trade, and animal living conditions as well as animal creulty.

It would be great if this topic were introduced in modern college ethics courses and if we all had time to learn about why our food choices do matter. This book offers something others don't along those lines and if you are an analytical or thoughtful person, or just want to know more about how what you buy in your weekly shopping trip affects the planet and the animals on it, it's worth your time.

Disclosure: Peter Singer and I corresponded extensively during his writing of _The Way We Eat_, and his new book favorably references both of my books.

Right now, Michael Pollan's _The Omnivore's Dilemma_ is already well on its way to becoming the top-selling book on food politics released this decade. Peter Singer and Jim Mason's new book, _The Way We Eat_ has the profound misfortune of being released just three weeks later, and this new title finds itself the grape to Pollan's steamroller.

This chance situation is a terrible shame, since _The Way We Eat_ is the better researched and more carefully thought-through book. Both of these titles are excellent, but if you're only going to read one I'd urge you to read Singer.

For two books that trace the origins of our food, these titles have surprisingly little overlap. Read both of these books and you'll know more about food than 99 percent of Americans -- and if you grew up eating the standard American diet it's almost inconceivable that you'll continue eating in this fashion.

If you decide to read both books, be sure to read Singer first. As I've noted in my Amazon.com review of _The Omnivore's Dilemma_, Pollan makes some ill-informed arguments in favor of including animal products in the diet. The trouble is that Pollan is such a gifted writer that he ends up being highly persuasive even when he's on very thin ice with his facts. Reading _The Way We Eat_ is a wonderful way to prepare for _The Omnivore's Dilemma_ --- you'll be in a prime position to critically analyze both the strengths and weaknesses of Pollan's flawed but vitally important book.

It's a shame that I can't write a review of _The Way We Eat_ without mentioning Pollan in the same breath, because Singer and Mason's book more than stands on its own. It's marvelously researched, and has a quality of critical thinking that few food writers could even aspire to. What's more, the writing flows beautifully.

If you want to advance your knowledge of where our food comes from, and understand more about the ethical implications of different diets, there's no better place to start than by reading _The Way We Eat._

Few facets of human existence affect our health and the environment as much as what we eat, and surely none has a greater impact on animals. Thus, the time seems perpetually ripe for good books on human food choices. The authors of this one, both vegetarians and probably vegans, succeed in presenting a well-reasoned and reader-friendly discussion of their subject.

The book is built around the food habits of three American families, one who subscribe to the traditional "meat and potatoes" diet, another who are conscientious semi-vegetarians, and the third who are vegans. Each serves as a base from which to examine food production and its consequences. We travel from factory farms to farmers' markets, from kitchens to ocean trawlers to dumpsters. We hear from people who work in all of these environments. And the authors provide analyses without sermonizing.

Several trends emerge. Large meat corporations talk of educating the public about modern meat production, but fail to return phone calls and flatly deny access to their meat processing facilities. We learn of "the law of gravity of big business"--with big corporations buying up organic brands then cutting corners to maximize profits. We meet farmers who move their animals from intensive indoor confinement to outdoor pasture situations. One such, a pig farmer, describes how many hassles he now avoids by letting his pigs run outside on pasture: no more tail-amputation, no antibiotics, no special weaning feed (his piglets wean naturally at 8 weeks instead of artificially at 2 weeks), and "scouring" (diarrhea) is replaced by "pasture poop" that doesn't stink (I can attest to this, as a regular visitor to a sanctuary with free-roaming pigs). And far from being an economic liability, the ensuing demand for his product has outgrown his supply.

For those who eat fish, there is news to prick the conscience--an excellent summation of recent findings demonstrating pain and cognition in fishes. To that end, I was surprised the authors chose not to include fish flesh as a form of "meat." For those who eat eggs, we learn of deluxe free-range eggs (sold at five times that of conventional battery eggs) being shipped from New Zealand to California with such efficiency that--owing to time zones--an American may be eating an omelet before the hen laid the egg. Little wonder, then, that the ingredients in some dinners have been shipped further than the distance around the Earth's circumference (24,000 miles).

That said, here's to "freegans" who remove themselves from the troubled food supply chain by living entirely off discarded food mined from supermarket dumpsters.

Wherever you are in that chain, you should read this book, and take stock of your food choices.

Book Review

The Way We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter
By Peter Singer & Jim Mason
Rodale, 2006

Review by Karen Davis, PhD, President of United Poultry Concerns

In The Way We Eat, attorney Jim Mason and philosopher Peter Singer team up to show how we can, and why we should, act "to reduce the harm" that our food choices inflict on animals, the environment, and other people.

The book is presented as the authors' journey into the homes of three American families whose food choice habits and dietary ethics range from standard convenient (Tyson, Wal-Mart, fast-food) to semi-conscientious ("humanely-produced" meat, dairy and eggs) to ethical vegan (healthful, compassionate, animal-free food). They chat with pig farmers, egg producers, commercial crabbers, and others in the food industry to give readers a better idea of the origin and true cost of foods in terms of dollars and cents, animal suffering, environmental damage and human health.

They show us a free-range pig farm versus an industrialized pig farm, and visit organic and cage-free egg-laying hen operations where the hens may or may not ("not" if the eggs are labeled "cage-free") spend some time outdoors, and where they are "beak trimmed" to offset the effects of boredom and crowding and are ultimately trucked to slaughter, live markets or elsewhere after a year or two.

Scientific evidence that fish feel pain is importantly presented, and in "Enter the Chicken Shed," the authors powerfully describe the brutality of the chicken industry (which produces the 6-week-old baby chickens consumers know only as "chicken") and the unspeakable pain and suffering these birds endure. In addition to heart attacks, lameness and other manmade miseries, chickens are intentionally kept alive during the slaughter process so their hearts will continue to beat and pump out blood after their throats are cut, which is why hundreds of millions of chickens- one in every three, according to the book - are scalded alive at the slaughter plant. Professor John Webster of the University of Bristol's School of Veterinary Medicine is quoted as saying that, in his opinion, industrialized chicken production is, "in both magnitude and severity, the single most severe, systematic example of man's inhumanity to another sentient animal" (p. 24).

When the book was in draft I was asked to offer suggestions on the chicken and egg chapters, which I gladly did with improved results, for while The Way We Eat conveys much of the cruelty of industrialized chicken and egg production, the authors empathize poorly with birds. They refer to artificially-inseminated turkeys' genitals in crude terms, and demean hens' need to dustbathe by implying that dustbathing is some sort of poorly understood female type of behavior, when in fact dustbathing is well known by scientists and others including the authors (I gave them the information, which they ignored) to be chickens' way of maintaining healthy skin and plumage and is so essential to their welfare and sense of wellbeing that battery-caged hens will attempt to "vacuum" dustbathe on the wire floors of their cages.

The Way We Eat contains valuable information, ideas, and recommendations; however, the authors' characterization of less industrialized, more traditional types of animal farms and farming practices as "humane" and "animal friendly" does not hold up, and one can only wonder if their skuzzy applause would be given if instead of chickens, cows, pigs, turkeys and fish, the animals were companion animals or humans.

This book is thus a long way from the animal liberation and antispeciesist philosophy associated with Peter Singer and from Jim Mason's earlier book An Unnatural Order which criticizes traditional animal farming as the root of social injustice and human domination in the world. Still, the authors make important points, as in arguing for example that "Personal purity isn't really the issue. . . . Giving people the impression that it is virtually impossible to be vegan doesn't help animals at all" (p. 283).

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Karen Davis, PhD is the author of Prisoned Chickens, Poisoned Eggs: An Inside Look at the Modern Poultry Industry; More Than a Meal: The Turkey in History, Myth, Ritual, and Reality; and The Holocaust and the Henmaid's Tale: A Case for Comparing Atrocities. She's the President and Founder of United Poultry Concerns, a nonprofit organization that promotes the compassionate and respectful treatment of domestic fowl. www.upc-online.org

I got this book to be fair - I knew Peter Singer had a reputation as being on the fringe philosophy-wise, but not much more than that. I was intrigued by the title and had already read Fast Food Nation. So I read the book because I felt it was important to do so even if I disagreed with the writer. Well, I am glad I read the book and I plan to make changes based on the information I received from it. I plan to investigate for myself more. I was always happy with Wal-Mart's low food prices but I can see where much of the true cost is passed on to employees, the community, and the environment. If that sentence doesn't make sense to you - READ THE BOOK. Singer is evidently a vegetarian, but this book does not tell you to become one. Instead, he lays out several different types of consumers and shows you how to decide where YOU fall in the spectrum. The aim is to get you to THINK AND ASK QUESTIONS. And hey, if you want a big ole burger on a bun - he says it's your business. But he wants us to really understand what that burger MEANS.

While Peter Singer and Jim Mason's track the sources of three families' food shopping choices back to the farm, they have simultaneously had an enormous impact on the way I view food. This life-changing book breaks down the systemically-entrenched, nontransparent industrial farming practices in a balanced, complex, interesting and readable way. I already knew something about each of the topics that are touched on in this book, but they pull together the pieces of this puzzle that I have been gathering over time in such a compelling way that is inspiring me to modify what I thought was already a conscientious way of eating, and to fight for changes to this system.

In the first chapter, focusing on a family who shops at Walmart, you get an inside look into the inhumane, environmentally detrimental and unsustainable practices of the pig, cow and chicken farms that produce the inexpensive meat found in stores like Walmart. Meat and poultry, eggs and milk are as cheap as they are not because that's what the market will pay, but because corporations and consumers are not paying for the externalities to the environmental and animals that result in doing business this way.

Singer and Mason describe with much imagery the way mainstream industrial farms keep large amounts of animals pent up in cages or crates, unable to turn around or interact with one another. In such situations chickens start pecking at each other and pigs bite one another's tales off, leading the farmers to sear off the nerve-intensive end of the birds beak, and cut off the pigs' tails. Lighting conditions in hen houses are made to trick hens into laying more eggs then they naturally would, which their bodies can't sustain, and cows are genetically engineered to be big and meaty, while not making their bones any stronger, causing broken bones and immobile cattle. And that's only the tip of the iceberg.

The authors detail how such farming practices not only stresses the animals, but also the environment. For example, the large amounts of animals that can be raised through these methods produce more nitrogen-laden manure than the earth can absorb, which subsequently runs off into rivers and streams and greatly impacting fish populations down stream.

Proceeding chapters follow a family that shops at Trader Joes, Wild Oats and farmers markets, and a vegan family. The book goes in depth into fair trade, organic farming, genetically modified organisms, wild versus farmed fish, and seafood cultivation, among others. At each step, the authors unpack the ethical dilemmas we face with each decision we make on what to eat, where the food we buy should be produced and what brands to choose. For example, they evaluate the ethical choices in some peoples preference to "buy local," looking at it from an environmental perspective (how much gas gets used per fruit or vegetable to drive to the farmers market, versus flying or trucking the vegetables to the supermarket) and a humanitarian and economic perspective (is it necessarily ethically better to help the person in the next town, or to support people in third world countries who may be living on the equivalent of $1 or $2 a day?)

It is clear throughout, but especially in the last chapter, that the authors very strongly believe that veganism is the only ethical answer at the moment, given all of the unknowns in even the organic animal farming industry. My one concern with the book is that I don't feel like they truly weighed any potential cons to vegansim. They talk about what happens to the ecosystem when one organism is taken out; if we all stop eating meat, can that potential put our ecosystem out of balance? And is it healthy to eat a diet that seems to be so heavily rooted in soy products? The answers to these quesitons may still point to veganism, but I am not convinved of that until I see the full picture.

This book is an excellent introduction for those who want to find out more about where our food comes from. It is not preachy or aggressive. Rather, it opens your mind to the various arguments, while still offering the authors' views on the ethics of different food choices.

The text is very well-researched, from their own first-hand experience, talking to various farmers, as well as from the existing body of literature in science, dietetics, agriculture and philosophy.

No one could accuse this book of being unduly biased. They note the arguments of producers and concede ground where it is appropriate to do so. For example, they note the way some vegans overestimate the amount of water that it takes to produce different types of meat and reach a compromise figure that they believe more accurately reflects the amount of water that goes into beef. They also respectfully recognise the pressures that lead people to make unethical food choices and encourage a way forward without making people feel like they're being whacked over the head with a moral stick.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the origins of our food and how ethics relates to that.

'The Way We Eat' was very eye-opening as it provided lots of facts and insight on modern agriculture and the origins of various American meals. Singer & Mason's account of various forms of meat production is downright horrifying, and is probably intended as such.

I read this book immediately after finishing Michael Pollan's 'The Omnivore's Dilemma'. These 2 recently released books on food politics are perfect companions. Overall, Pollan's work was much more entertaining and seemed to go by much quicker. Although, I think Singer & Mason did more extensive research. Where Pollan didn't seem to pass judgement on various diets, I saw that Singer & Mason were very biased toward the vegan diet. I guess that's to be expected, since Singer is an ethicist and was trying to present the most ethical meal.

Aside from that bit of preachiness, this was an excellent book. The facts presented here need a wider audience.

I really enjoy this book and found it to be very informative and inspirational in terms of eating more carefully. I just feel that the title is a little misleading. It doesn't say much about the problems with non-meat that we eat such as wheat and grains---which many don't tolerate well and they take up a lot of natural resources like water and space as opposed to some things grown using agroforestry like bananas, mangoes, plantain and coconuts--which feed a lot of people and take up less space (from animals) and less water. They talk alot about eating local which I agree with to a large extent but I also know it is helpful to people with fragile economies when we eat produce they grow--it actually helps others outside of the United States. Then too there is the issue of clearing land and maintaining it with ploughs which kills lots of indigenous wildlife like rabbits and other small animals as well as nesting birds. So while I really enjoy the concept of this book and realize it contains vital information for the public, I hope in future editions they will address some of the other issues people are less familiar with at this point, like eating cash crops grown by indigenous people, leaning more on agroforestry and less on massive land crops that kill animals and use nature resources.

There are several books lining the shelves that contain information on animal rights, vegetarianism, and organic and fair trade food items. However, none seem quite as well-rounded, or nearly as objective and succinct as Peter Singer and Jim Mason's The Ethics of What We Eat. These two authors have put together an incredibly well-crafted and unbiased argument regarding making ethical choices at the grocery store, and "voting" with one's diet and wallet.

The book begins by taking the reader to the grocery store on a routine shopping trip with a few different families. The first family is what one might consider your stereotypical "meat and potatoes" American consumers. The second family, in contrast, are "conscientious omnivores" who pay fairly close attention to their purchases, buying certified organic and fair trade items, and eat little meat. The third family is vegan. The authors even foray into "dumpster diving" with a few people who contend that ethical eating involves not letting disposed of edibles go to waste. The day-to-day purchases (or scavenges) of each of these families are dissected and analyzed. Which one of these families is truly making the most ethically sound decisions when it comes to their daily food choices? What lies behind that "Certified Organic" label? What does it mean when something is labeled "free range" or "fair trade?" Is it worth paying extra money for something with the aforementioned labels?

While focusing quite a bit on factory farming, this book also discusses the ethics of buying locally grown food, sustainability of marine ecosystems, environmental impacts of food production (including water and gas use), and the global economy. Pros and cons are given for each side of each argument, and, though they ultimately seem to side with a vegan diet as being the most ethically sound decision, they do note that this may be too drastic a decision for many and leave it up to the reader to come to their own conclusions about what to place in their shopping cart. The authors are never "preachy" with regards to the information presented, as many of the books found in this genre so often are.

As if this book itself weren't packed full enough with useful information itself, the back of the book provides several good books, websites, and stores where more information can be found on any of the included issues. Overall, this book is very highly recommended for those who want to put some thought and attention into what they put on their plates and into their mouths. The food industry does indeed try to keep consumers in the dark, and it's time everyone took some initiative to educate themselves on their dietary choices. This is a great place to start.