This week’s blog post features Christopher Gardner, PhD Professor
of Medicine at Stanford
University. This session is titled: Ethics
of Food, Sustainability and the Environment.
Ideally the system that provides the food we eat should be both ethical
and support environmental sustainability. In addition, ideally, food should be
nutritious, pleasing to the palate, safe, convenient, and affordable. None of
these characteristics are dichotomous; they all involve a continuum.
Unfortunately, in some cases increasing one characteristic results in
decreasing another. Our current food production and consumption practices are
less than ideal, with room for improvement. This presentation will address the
disturbingly unethical treatment of livestock raised for food and the human
labor force that plants, raises, tends, harvests, and slaughters our food.
Strategies for increasing the environmental sustainability of our food choices
will be discussed. Finally, it will be proposed that engaging your clients and
patients in the topics of food ethics and environmental sustainability may be a
useful tool in helping some of them to make sustained healthful behavior
modifications in their eating habits.
