Towards Post-Pandemic Sustainable and Ethical Food Systems

Abstract

The current global COVID-19 pandemic has led to a deep and multidimensional crisis across all sectors of society. As countries contemplate their mobility and social-distancing policy restrictions, we have a unique opportunity to re-imagine the deliberative frameworks and value priorities in our food systems. Pre-pandemic food systems at global, national, regional and local scales already needed revision to chart a common vision for sustainable and ethical food futures. Re-orientation is also needed by the relevant sciences, traditionally siloed in their disciplines and without adequate attention paid to how the food system problem is variously framed by diverse stakeholders according to their values. From the transdisciplinary perspective of food ethics, we argue that a post-pandemic scheme focused on bottom-up, regional, cross-sectoral and non-partisan deliberation may provide the re-orientation and benchmarks needed for not only more sustainable, but also more ethical food futures.

Beyond ‘food apartheid’: Civil society and the politicization of hunger in New Haven, Connecticut

“…Many NPOs seek to place sustainability, environmental degradation, food waste, and food justice on food policy agendas (Kaiser et al, 2021). Moreover, many experts now contend that the complexities of the food system can only be captured through a circular and interlocking system interacting with a variety of other social and natural systems (Kaiser et al, 2021). NPOs are now well positioned to capitalize on value shifts that are beginning to occur in the wake of COVID-19.…”

“…This has led to food overproduction, homogenization, and the creation of a global food market that has major implications for climate and the ecosystem in terms of sustainability and food miles. Moreover, it has also presaged the rise of 'convenience food,' a concomitant reduction in capacity to self-provision, and the loss of food skills (Tornaghi, 2014;Willett et al, 2019, Kaiser et al, 2021. These trends are exacerbated by political strategies that roll back state services, adopt market (rather than public good) strategies as a way of reducing state spending, and promote individualized and privatized approaches to service provision (Brenner & Theodore, 2002).…”

1. Food justice, food security, and climate engineering

“…But their mistake might be that: (1) they argue with confidence that they represent a purely 'objective' account of the problem and its solution, while subjective judgements permeate the whole report; and that (2) they believe that their global analysis based on quantified targets is a good starting point for policy design. One might ask if not some simple heuristics, adjusted to local and regional conditions, and a more transdisciplinary effort from bottom-up might have better chances of transforming our food systems (Kaiser et al, 2021). In any case, appropriating the flag of honest broker under these conditions might stretch our ethics of science.…”

“…The principles of good governance have been widely embraced: legitimacy, accountability, participation, fairness, equity, transparency, and value pluralism (Kaiser et al, 2021;Van Doeveren, 2011). The mention of participation is commonly taken to imply a principally bottom-up approach, basically also because top-down approaches have been shown to lack robustness and compliance from the populace.…”

Ethical reflections on the COVID-19 pandemic in the global seafood industry: navigating diverse scales and contexts of marine values and identities

“…Supplying food, including seafood, has remained an essential service throughout the pandemic. Global food supply chains have shown resilience (Rubinstein 2020 ), with some countries, like New Zealand, re-configuring food systems to enhance their domestic resilience against external disruptions (Kaiser et al 2021 ). Resilient food systems often have flexible supply chains, such as alternative seafood networks, which add functional diversity that can handle systemic shocks (Stoll et al 2021 ).…”