To Live is to Devour Others

This paper studies how Ishida Sui’s Tokyo Ghoul creates its typical sense of “tragedy,” by stressing the injustice inherent in every act of eating, and by generalizing the model of nutrition to every ethically laden act. Ishida undermines the Kantian principle that “ought implies can,” depicting a twisted world which forces us into wrongdoing: we have to eat, but there is no Other we can eat with moral impunity. Still, his characters provide some ethical models which could be implemented in our everyday food ethics, given that the tragicality spotted by Ishida is not that alien to our food system: food aesthetics, nihilism, amor fati, living with the tragedy, and letting ourselves be eaten are the options Ishida offers to cope with the tragedy, to approach the devastation our need for food brings into the world in a more aware and charitable way. The examination of Ishida’s narrative device, conducted with the mediation of thinkers such as Lévinas, Ricoeur, Derrida, and other contemporary moral philosophers, shall turn the question: “how to become worthy of eating?” into the core problem for food ethics.

Eating Insects: A Christian Ethic of Farmed Insect Life

Proponents of entomophagy have argued that the farming of insects offers many advantages when contrasted with more traditional farming practices. This article explores the place of insect farming within a wider Christian food ethic and argues that insect farming has much to recommend it. However, through exploring the role of animal agriculture within the ideological structures of anthropocentrism, a more ambiguous picture of the ethics of insect farming emerges. This belies a simple endorsement or denunciation of insect farming as an ethical alternative to the farming of larger animals. Moreover, the example of insect farming reveals that Christian food ethics needs to radically reimagine the entire food provisioning system if it is to inculcate substantive change in human relationships with nonhuman animals.

Consumers’ perceptions of food ethics in luxury dining

Purpose This paper aims to draw on the sociocultural dimensions of food luxury consumption as a new theoretical foundation to explore the consumers’ perceptions of ethical food production and consumption practices within luxury gastronomic restaurants. Design/methodology/approach The authors conducted a contextualized, qualitative exploration of French luxury dining settings among 35 consumers with different profiles, food cultural backgrounds and gastronomic knowledge. Drawing on Thompson’s analysis framework, the authors captured the narratives beyond the stories told by participants that describe their perceptions and the meanings they assign to ethical food practices in Michelin-starred restaurants. Findings The results illustrate how consumers with different profiles perceive ethical food practices within luxury restaurants. The authors identified three segments: novice, advanced and confirmed according to participants’ acquaintance with luxury gastronomy codes and values. These three profiles served as a framework to examine consumers’ perceptions of ethical food forms – environmental sustainability, food well-being and cultural heritage – within the luxury dining setting. Research limitations/implications The study revealed no one dominant form of ethical food practices as emphasized in prior studies. Rather, there are multiple forms, including functional, hedonic and symbolic values, related to the degree of familiarity and knowledge of consumers in terms of their luxury gastronomic experiences. The findings show that the perception of ethical food practices within luxury restaurants can encompass additional dimensions such as food well-being and cultural preservation and transmission. This information can enrich the restaurant sustainability literature that principally focuses on health, community and the ecological aspects of food ethics in restaurants. Although this study suggests numerous new insights, there are limitations related to focusing on the French food culture. However, these limitations can help us develop other opportunities for future research. Practical implications The findings of this study provide luxury professionals and marketers with key insights into effective strategies to integrate sustainable practices while enhancing the luxury experience. The findings show that to encourage luxury businesses and restaurants to promote sustainable practices, it is necessary to enhance the functional, social, emotional and cultural dimensions of the perceived benefits of offering sustainable luxury experiences and reducing the constraints related to sustainability. Social implications With its focus on the luxury dining settings underpinning the ethical food practices from the perspective of consumers, this research offers novel insights for researchers and luxury professionals interested in ethical and sustainable business practices. Originality/value This research suggests a new way to study sustainability and ethical food production and consumption practices in luxury dining settings – namely, as multiple, culturally embedded perceptions related to three main profiles of luxury gastronomy consumers: novice, advanced and confirmed.

Exploring Food Cultures through Art: Meeting People Where They Are at

Engaging people in critical conversations about food practices is often challenging. In this paper, we explore how an exhibition was used as an educative site to explore food insecurity and food cultures and to promote food ethics and healthy eating. Surveys and interviews from the opening night of an exhibition were collected and Bourdieu’s habitus was used to theoretically inform analysis. The diversity of artworks displayed were found to provoke critical reflection about food cultures among participants. Findings revealed the exhibition was a non-intrusive space for meeting people ‘where they were at’ in understandings of food and food practice. Artworks were found to evoke reflections on food as a cultural phenomenon and as a deeply personal component of everyday worlds. The tensions in making food choices and food as agentic in participants lives were highlighted. Findings suggest that exhibitions may support critical engagement with food practice when audiences are given opportunities to discuss their thoughts and ideas.

Food Ethics, Domestication and Togetherness - A Close-up Study of the Relation of Horse and Dog to Man in the Bronze Age Settlement of Apalle

This paper deals with the attitude to the horse and the dog at a later Bronze Age site in central Sweden. Three different phenomena of social practise are linked together: the deposition of bones, slaughter marks on bones, and pictorial representation in rock-carvings and on artefacts. Two chronological phases at the settlement are compared in order to see if they display changes, regarding the three different phenomena, over time.

President’s Choice “Crave More” or ask less? The construction of “ethics” in food advertising

This research paper explores six video advertisements from the President’s Choice “Crave More” campaign through the lens of food ethics and storytelling in advertising. A qualitative content analysis was used to code each of the videos for frequencies of ethical food tropes, and a storytelling framework was then applied to analyze how these tropes work together to position President’s Choice as an ethical brand. The findings suggest that President’s Choice uses tropes of food traceability, the place and production process of food, and images of food in its natural form and as an ingredient to convey messages of ethics to the food buying public. The advertisements use narration to allow for food to shine as the main character in the video, while human characters such as President’s Choice employees and farmers are considered supplementary to food. Ultimately, this paper posits that President’s Choice uses ethical food tropes to deconstruct the production process of food for the consumer in order to create an image that depicts the brand as “ethical”.

President’s Choice “Crave More” or ask less? The construction of “ethics” in food advertising

This research paper explores six video advertisements from the President’s Choice “Crave More” campaign through the lens of food ethics and storytelling in advertising. A qualitative content analysis was used to code each of the videos for frequencies of ethical food tropes, and a storytelling framework was then applied to analyze how these tropes work together to position President’s Choice as an ethical brand. The findings suggest that President’s Choice uses tropes of food traceability, the place and production process of food, and images of food in its natural form and as an ingredient to convey messages of ethics to the food buying public. The advertisements use narration to allow for food to shine as the main character in the video, while human characters such as President’s Choice employees and farmers are considered supplementary to food. Ultimately, this paper posits that President’s Choice uses ethical food tropes to deconstruct the production process of food for the consumer in order to create an image that depicts the brand as “ethical”.