Food Ethics Council

Tesco recently announced that it will begin labelling its products to show how much carbon they emit through production, transport and consumption. Tom MacMillan explores what these 'carbon labels' might teach us about communicating food ethics.
March 2007

In this article, Tom MacMillan explains the Food Ethics Council's approach to putting ethics at the heart of decisions about food and farming and discusses the FEC's recent work on diet and public health.
March 2007

Paul Steedman, research fellow on the FEC's Road Pricing and Sustainable Food project, explores some of the effects that changes in the way we transport and shop for food have had on the environment and society and whether road pricing, if introduced on a national level, might influence our food distribution systems and shopping habits.
02 February 2007

Experts from the food industry, academia, the public sector and civil society met at the RSA to discuss the effects of road pricing on food and shopping. This report summarises their deliberations and conclusions.
December 2006

The Winter issue of our magazine, themed 'the bottom line', is available to subscribers. The cover, contents and leading article can be viewed here for free. The issue includes articles about food poverty, hunger and ethical business.
December 2006

It is in the interests of companies investing in nutrigenomics to ensure robust regulation is in place.
July/August 2006

Ofcom, the media regulator, is trying to decide how to restrict the advertising of junk food to children, but its consultation is flawed. More...
10 July 2006

The Autumn issue of our magazine, themed 'secrecy', is freely available here until 2nd October 2006. It includes articles on food advertising, gene-tailored diets and the hidden struggles faced by coffee producers.
September 2006

John Verrall, a pharmaceutical chemist and member of the Food Ethics Council, is a member of the Veterinary Products Committee that advises UK government. In this minority report he highlights important scientific evidence that is omitted from the committee's official report on Risks associated with the use of hormonal substances in food-producing animals.
The report was initially intended as an appendix to the official report and it is published here in the draft form in which it was submitted to the VPC for consideration.
Since this minority report was drafted, further analysis of potential risks associated with low-level exposure to hormones used in meat production has been published by the University Department of Growth and Reproduction, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark, which under Professor Niels E. Skakkebæk is a recognised world authority on the subject. By kind permission of the authors, Human Reproduction Update and Oxford University Press, the article is reproduced here.
3rd July 2006

Sigrid Sterckx and Tom MacMillan discuss the value of involving citizens in decisions about food and agriculture, drawing on examples from the controversy over GM foods. More...
June 2006