Food and ethics are intimately connected. Whether you’re a food producer, business, consumer or policy-maker, decisions about food involve consideration of the health and welfare of our planet, people and animals.

Ethics refers to the values, principles and codes by which people live. Acting ethically means taking values seriously and asking ‘what should I do, all things considered?’

Recent trends such as increasing obesity levels and rising food prices have pushed sustainable development and public health promotion squarely onto the policy agenda. Yet action on sustainability and wellbeing is only credible if it also tackles the structural causes of injustice.

Ethical argument

Sustainability often adds up to little more than ‘eco-efficiency’, where social justice becomes an optional add-on for government, business and campaigners.

According to the WHO (2005), approximately 1.6 billion adults worldwide are overweight and at least 400 million adults are obese, with predictions that by 2015, approximately 2.3 billion adults will be overweight and more than 700 million obese.

Obesity is a major risk factor for chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, musculoskeletal disorders and some cancers.

There are more obese people in developing and newly industrialised countries than there are in the industrialised world.

Ethical argument

Under EU law, “traceability” means the ability to track any food, feed, food-producing animal or substance that will be used for consumption, through all stages of production, processing and distribution. It exists as a way of responding to potential risks that can arise in food and feed, and acts as a risk-management tool to ensure that all food products are safe to eat.