The White Hat Guide to Ethical Food

Now to the ‘E’ part of SOLE food – Ethical.

Among other things this involves how animals in the food chain are treated. Many vegans believe that although many human cultures have evolved in the past as omnivores that humans are capable of determining their own futures and that it is no longer ethical to use animals or animal products.

For those whose ethical framework is capable of embracing animal products such as honey, eggs and dairy products, life becomes less simple and the standard omnivore has even more ethical issues to evaluate.

Here at White Hat we don’t intend to preach to you about what your ethical framework should be – there are plenty of other organisations out there willing and anxious to do that. We will merely from time to time raise some issues and allow you as grown ups to consider where they fit in your ethical framework.

One organisation that has tried to codify some basic principles for the treatment of farm animals is the Farm Animal Welfare Council of the UK. They have come up with what they call the Five Freedoms:

1. Freedom from Hunger and Thirst - by ready access to fresh water and a diet to maintain full health and vigour.

2. Freedom from Discomfort - by providing an appropriate environment including shelter and a comfortable resting area.

3. Freedom from Pain, Injury or Disease - by prevention or rapid diagnosis and treatment.

4. Freedom to Express Normal Behaviour - by providing sufficient space, proper facilities and company of the animal's own kind.

5. Freedom from Fear and Distress - by ensuring conditions and treatment which avoid mental suffering.

You can find these at: http://www.fawc.org.uk/freedoms.htm

This is a good and worthwhile attempt. However, like a charter of human rights, real life doesn’t turn out that simple and we are often faced with situations that force us to prioritise one freedom over another. Take chooks. We can allow them to go free range but they belong to the animal kingdom and Tennyson reminds us that nature is “red in tooth and claw”. Chooks in a freerange environment can be as brutal and cruel to each other as teenage girls in a schoolyard or on the internet. Poultry confined to a barn have less chance of being infected from diseases from the outside environment. Which freedoms do we trade off against others?

“Vegetarian eggs’ are created by preventing the chooks from including ‘natural’ animal products such as worms, slugs and snails in their diet and forcing them to eat only grain. Is this ethical? Some people force their household pets which have come from countless centuries of omnivorous diets to eat only vegetarian products. Is this ethical? We present no answers, we just ask the questions.

Being vegan doesn’t make ethical problems go away. Most plant life is co-dependent on animals. Much of the fruit and nuts grown in Australia wouldn’t be possible without the European bee. Have the bees had the same 5 freedoms listed above? In many cases not, so maybe vegans should be looking at only eating ethically pollinated fruit and nuts. Then there are certain organic fertilisers and pest control techniques which cause slow and lingering deaths to bugs.

Life’s not simple although people from various pressure groups across the spectrum prefer to depict it as such. Here at White Hat we often feel overwhelmed but just try to start with the largest issues and gradually work our way to the smaller ones. It is sometimes tempting and would certainly be easier to adopt an “ism” which offers simplistic solutions to complex problems - but would that be ethical?

Another aspect to consuming ethical food is the human conditions under which it has been produced. Are people in a far-off country being treated inhumanely in order to create the foodstuffs which end up on your table? Most of us are familiar with the Fair Trade coffee initiative. There have been some who feel that the socio-political model embedded in the Fair Trade system is not the fairest or most sustainable one available and have set up rival schemes. “We’re fairer than you!” “”Well, we’ll be even more generous to the producers and that will be even fairer.” This sort of marketplace rivalry about who can be fairer and more generous seems no bad thing.

It is easy for some manufacturers to hide away unethical practices behind attractive packaging and marketing. Unfortunately it is equally easy for some advocacy groups to hide away socio political agendas behind their advocacy of ‘eating ethically’. Should we eat Australian fruit? Much of it is picked by casual labour which is paid according to how much they pick rather than by the hour. For some advocacy groups this is unethical and similar judgements are built into their evaluations of which companies out there are ethical. When people on all sides are often involved in hiding away information value judgements it makes it difficult for we mugs out here to make an informed decision. But never mind, we stumble on and keep getting better at it.

It never seems to get any easier. For instance, should we buy Vegemite? It has always been produced under Melbourne and as far as I know the employees have always been treated well. The Vegemite brand was bought some time ago by the Kraft Company. Thus the Ethical Consumer Guide calls on us to boycott Vegemite because they judge Kraft’s business practices overseas to be unethical.

If you are interested in finding out more about what this organisation believes is ethical and what is not then we recommend you go to their website at: http://www.ethical.org.au/

In future White Hat Food Guide Newsletters we will be examining considerations of ethical food and this page will grow  so return again soon.