Christian Coff - Böcker

This book marks a new departure in ethics. In our culture ethics has first and foremost been a question of “the good life” in relation to other people. Central to this ethic was friendship, inspired by Greek thought (not least Aristotle), and the caritas concept from the Judaeo-Christian tradition. Later moral philo- phers also included man’s relation to animals, and it was agreed that the m- treatment of animals was morally reprehensible. But no early moral teaching discussed man’s relation to the origin of foodstuffs and the system that p- duced them; doubtless the question was of little interest since the production path was so short. The interest in good-quality food is of course an ancient one, and healthy eating habits have often been underlined as a condition for the good life. But before industrialization the production of this food was easy to follow. As a rule, that is no longer the case. The field of ethics must therefore be extended to cover responsibility for the production and choice of foodstuffs, and it is this food ethic that Christian Coff sets out to trace.

The theme of this book evolved from the idea of linking three concepts around food: traceability, ethics and informed choice. We believe that the current devel- ment and implementation of traceability in the agri-food sector offers an interesting way not only of handling food safety but also of addressing and communicating ethical issues arising from current food production practices. Practices in the agri-food sector worry food consumers (as we all are, since we need to eat and drink to stay alive). But how can consumers act upon their concerns? Paradoxically, although consumers are bombarded with information on food – from the media, the food industry, food authorities, NGOs and interest groups – details about how foods are actually produced is often hard to find. Much of the infor- tion available is superficial, conflicting or partial, and it is hard for consumers seeking to mak e informed food choices to know which information to trust. The consumers we interviewed for this project felt that information about food products was withheld and manipulated. Traceability, which provides a record of the history and journey of a given food, and which is increasingly used in the food sector for legal and commercial reasons, has the potential to communicate a more authentic picture of how food is produced.

This book marks a new departure in ethics, which has up to now been a question of 'the good life' in relation to other people, based on Greek concepts of friendship and the Judaeo-Christian a'caritas.' No early moral teaching discussed man's relation to the origin of foodstuffs and the system that produced them; doubtless the question was of little interest since the production path was so short.