Food Ethics Council

We want a better, fairer food system – one where it is easy to eat well and chronic hunger is a distant memory worldwide, where farmers and food producers can make a decent living, where animals are treated humanely, and which respects the environment.

But then who doesn’t? The tricky part is getting there. The Food Ethics Council is unique for focusing on how decisions are made about food and farming, and who makes them. By challenging government, business and society to improve decision-making, we help people make choices that lead towards a more just and sustainable future.

We champion decision-making that is:

• Principled – aiming to benefit people, animals and the planet, and treat each fairly and with dignity. Ethical principles like justice underpin how, as a society, we tell right from wrong. Our ethical tools use such principles to help decision-makers think through the effects of their choices more fully, asking who benefits, spotting win-wins and making trade-offs fairly.
• Informed – based on sound knowledge and diverse experience, but ready for surprises. Our research and analysis spells out and explores the big questions behind difficult problems and emerging controversies in food and farming. We put our research publications through extended peer review by experts and stakeholders on our Council and beyond.
• Inclusive – involving and answerable to the people it affects. We advocate transparent policy processes that are open to public scrutiny. Our workshops and events create a space for deliberation and promote wider public involvement in decisions by government and businesses.