Ethical implications of food?

I'm already a vegan, so I know enough about animal agriculture. What I'm wondering is what are the ethical implications of vegan foods? Does the production of my food entail some injustice I'm not aware of? What is the impact of the production of food packaging etc on people and the environment?


If you think attempting to eat compassionately is BS or that modern agriculture is ethical, don't bother responding. Enough people voice that opinion in my non-virtual life and I'm not here to hear it reiterated.

Thanks!

You are asking a question of ethics, but don't want to hear all sides, this sounds more like you are looking for people to agree with you to me.
Eat how you like, as long as you eat. I do not judge.

Hi there, I'm pretty sure there is a 'shop ethical' app for your iphone (if you have one). I haven't used it, but heard about it on the radio the other day, would be interesting to know what vegan brands are listed. I also like to think through what I'm eating... was aghast at the 'Food Inc.' documentary. :-) Hope you find some useful tips here.

the monocrops used to raise so many of our products are damaging the harvesters that they line up side by side in a huge
row and send over the 1000's of acres of monocrop to harvest kill lots of little critters living in those fields... just because they're small and out of sight they are not valued as the cows or other livestock raised for meat?

I dunno, nature itself is pretty "rotten" my chickens will make short work of a mouse if they can catch one, they also put a beating on the grasshopper population that would otherwise ruin my garden... then the hawks / fox that come in and take my chickens... all you find is feathers and one less to count when locking them up.

Not to mention the miles logged on my food to get strawberries from California to me in the winter... or the berries from Chile.....It adds up. For each and every one of us eating the food. But our food system, there's something to look at. If weather hits and shuts down transportation... look at hurricanes.. look at blizzards ... look at floods.. disruption to transportation and because of Just in Time delivery most stores run out of products as they only have a couple days worth of normal sales volume on hand...

There's a lot of human rights violiations going on out there - cocoa production in Africa is one that springs to mind.
And when I see the incredibly cheap price of a lot of kitchen utensils, storage containers etc, I'm concious that there is bound to be a factory full of incredibly poorly paid workers producing that 99c storage box.

It's really tough, and to be honest I've mostly decided that I can't take on all those issues. I try to "reduce, reuse, recycle" as a guiding principle, and minimise the airmiles in my food stuff... but beyond that I just don't look too hard because it's too depressing.

I agree that while it may be impossible to eliminate your negative impacts, it should certainly be a goal to minimize those impacts. It's a shame that some people find that to be a pointless exercise or choose to ignore the problems they help create. Other than the elimination of animal products, best things I can think of are fairly obvious: don't buy fresh produce out of season (saves miles and money), try to buy local, try to buy in bulk (saves packaging and money), buy organic when feasible. Don't buy any bottled water. One thing to consider is that much fresh produce, even organic, is hand picked by migrant workers (in the US, anyway), who likely have no rights. Growing your own is a nice ideal, but impractical for many people. You could look into CSAs, but I'm not sure that is much better. This is something I have to research further myself; I should also look into some of those ethical shopping apps.

Looking at it from the simple ethic of harm to living creatures, I suspect that agriculture harms FAR more life than the meat industry. The simple harvesting of a crop alone likely results in the deaths of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of living organisms. But most people seem to have a strange divide in their ethics... if it's fluffy or furry and dying at human hands it's terrible, but if it's bugs, ants, spiders, snakes, or field critters getting mashed up in harvester blades then it's perfectly acceptable.

Being a human being eating food that others produce necessarily causes death and suffering, be it meat or vegetarian. That's just something we have to live with.

I once did a ecological footprint quiz between how I used to live when living in India and how I live now in US. My Indian foot print was 1 whereas US footprint was 4. That is just the sad reality.
What is the difference between my life in India vs. here?

Eating local is the way of life in India. The produce is harvested and sold the same day. Whatever is left over at the end of the day goes for super cheap for the poor! Next day, new produce
Cooking from scratch every single day and every single meal!
No canned or frozen products so no need to spend the energy need to do those tasks
Seasonal fruits and vegetables only unless you want to pay big bucks. Ironic how it is more expensive to eat seasonal & organic fruits & veggies here.
Taking mass transportation instead of each person driving separately
Living in way smaller houses, families living jointly, siblings sharing rooms, etc.
Eating vegetarian (though I'm still a vegetarian)
Walking to markets and all nearby places. Less obesity rates, less overall strain on the system

These are just a small example of the difference in ways of living and it makes a huge difference in the overall impact on the earth.

I am trying hard to live the same way here. I cloth diaper my daughter, am trying to eliminate plastic, eat local and shop farmers markets when they're in season! Living in VA we only have them in the summer.

I'm not saying that living in India is the best thing on earth, however, as far as ecosystem is concerned it is lighter on the environment when compared to the western countries. Now other areas could use some help!

I'm already a vegan, so I know enough about animal agriculture.

One of the biggest myths assoicated with vegan culture.......it's a religion to most vegans, and in that respect the opportunity for discussion is downhill at best.

I'm confused by this - is the "myth" that the OP knows about animal agriculture? Or that veganism is "a religion"?

I worry about the ethics of food production and consumption, too. I can't make myself buy eggs at the grocery store except for the ones with this lable: http://www.certifiedhumane.org/index.php Mostly I buy locally raised eggs. There are only a few brands of milk I'll buy, and I used to only buy a few brands of cheese (cheese got to be so expensive I just cut way back on it and buy the cheapest stuff I can find). Our finances have suffered over the past few years so I've had to make some painful decisions about priorities. But eggs, milk and butter have been things I just can't budge on... I'll either buy them from sources that respect animals or I won't buy them.

There is a little store near my house that sells lots of locally raised food and I buy what I can from them, and then fill in elsewhere... mostly Trader Joe's. Just a few weeks ago I found out that Trader Joe's has had some attention recently because of what they pay some of the folks who pick produce for them... not good attention, either.

Transportation of food is a huge issue with regard to ethics. Monocropping is, too. And packaging.

I started making my own laundry detergent a few years ago because of transportation ethics and frustration over excessive, non-recyclable packaging, and I couldn't be happier with the results. For a while I made bread and yogurt because I was trying hard to reduce the amount of plastic we use. Those are things that I can do for a while and then I get my routine interrupted and I don't do it for a while. I'm hoping to get back to those again soon.

Sorry this is rambling so badly... I'm thinking and trying to type and trying to listen to my children all at the same time. I think it is time to move away from the computer for a bit!!

I look forward to reading other thoughts on this! Thank you for bringing it up! We can all make a difference if we decide to and it is absolutely worth it!

Shannon