Ebook: The Philosophy of Food

Introduction: The Philosophy of Food / David M. Kaplan -- Real men have manners / Roger Scruton -- Down-home global cooking: a third option between cosmopolitanism and localism / Lisa Heldke -- Hunger is the best sauce: the aesthetics of food / Kevin W. Sweeney -- Smells, tastes, and everyday aesthetics / Emily Brady -- Ethical gourmandism / Carolyn Korsmeyer -- Two evils in food country: hunger and lack of representation / Michiel Korthals -- Ethics and genetically modified food / Gary Comstock -- The ethics of food safety in the twenty-first century: who keeps the public good? -- The myth of happy meat / Richard P. Haynes -- Animal welfare, happy meat, and veganism as the moral baseline / Gary L. Francione -- Animal ethics and food production in the twenty-first century / David Fraser -- Nature politics and the philosophy of agriculture / Paul B. Thompson -- The ethics and sustainability of aquaculture / Matthias Kaiser -- Scenarios for food security / David Castle, Keith Culver, and William Hannah -- Nutritionism and functional foods / Gyorgy Scrinis -- In vitro meat: what are the moral issues? / Stellan Welin, Julie Gold, and Johanna Berlin -- Contributors.;This book explores food from a philosophical perspective, bringing together sixteen leading philosophers to consider the most basic questions about food: What is it exactly? What should we eat? How do we know it is safe? How should food be distributed? What is good food? David M. Kaplan's erudite and informative introduction grounds the discussion, showing how philosophers since Plato have taken up questions about food, diet, agriculture, and animals. However, until recently, few have considered food a standard subject for serious philosophical debate. Each of the essays in this book brings in-depth analysis to many contemporary debates in food studies--Slow Food, sustainability, food safety, and politics--and addresses such issues as "happy meat," aquaculture, veganism, and table manners. The result is an extraordinary resource that guides readers to think more clearly and responsibly about what we consume and how we provide for ourselves, and illuminates the reasons why we act as we do.