Introduction
Food ethics has gained relevance in the recent past, especially following the increase in food-related health problems. We have a responsibility to various stakeholders, other than ourselves, to be healthy. Government spends a lot of money in the health sector, especially due to the rise in lifestyle diseases. Cardiovascular diseases and diabetes account for the highest expenditure for the government in the health sector.
We have a responsibility to the government to be healthy. This is so because by being healthy, we will reduce the expenditure in the health sector, and this finance can be channeled to other sectors of the economy. Government depends on its healthy working population to earn its revenues. When we remain healthy, we will be able to work, and government will earn its revenues by taxing our income.
When we get sick and unable to work, we will not earn any taxable income, and this would deny the government opportunity to earn its revenue from us. It is also important to note that we work for the government in various positions, especially those of us working in public institutions. When we do not remain healthy, it means we may not be able to carry out some of the activities for the government.
This may paralyze its operations. We have a duty to remain healthy for the sake of our family members. When we get sick, a lot of money is always spent by the family in treating us. We should remain healthy in order to eliminate the need for this expenditure.
If we are healthy, we will be in a position to work and provide for these families. It is therefore, a fact that we have a responsibility to the society to remain healthy in order to play various roles assigns to us.
The Responsibilities of the Government in Food Ethics
The government has the biggest responsibility in safeguarding the health of the food industry. According to Gottwald (92), consumers are not always able to determine the ingredients of food that is presented to them. Most of the food manufacturers would always want to avoid revealing the true contents of their products once they realize that they could be containing some forms of contaminated substances.
For this reason, they would give a false list of the ingredients in their products. Consumers do not have specialized instruments that they can use to determine the quality of foods presented to them. Pojman (45) notes that the government has enough resources and manpower to monitor operations of various food processors and determine the health conditions of the food they present to the public.
It is therefore, their responsibility to ensure that they safeguard the health of food industry. As was explained in the introduction above, government is always affected when its citizens fall sick after eating unhealthy foods.
It would be forced to treat them, besides losing the income that would have been generated if the population were to remain healthy. Given that it has all the instruments that can enable it monitor food industry, it should do all that is within its powers to ensure that food industry is responsible enough to provide healthy foods.
The Responsibilities of Producers in Food Ethics
For a long time, there has been an argument that the corporate responsibility of business units is to make profits in order to give shareholders good returns. This may be true to some extent because firms can only exist if they remain profitable.
However, taking this as the central or the only corporate responsibility is an act that is not only unethical, but also illegal in case the process of gaining the profits affects other parties negatively. According to Burgan (31), corporate institutions in the food industry are in the best position to understand the ingredients that are put in the foods they produce.
These institutions know the types of ingredients that pose health problems when consumed. They also understand the quantities of specific ingredients that may pose health problems to people when taken. For this reason, they have the responsibility of ensuring that products they deliver to the public is safe enough for consumption. According to Vandamme (118), consumers love tasty foods.
They will therefore, go for such food items that have been prepared with a lot of calories or sugar. They enjoy eating such junk foods just because of the sweetness or their good taste. However, they fail to appreciate some of the health consequences they expose themselves to by eating such foods. It is the responsibility of the corporates to inform consumers of the contents of what they eat.
They can issue warnings as appropriate to the consumers, especially in relation to the volume that each product should be consumed per given period. As Farnworth (72) notes, the business units should develop a clear labeling systems that specifies the quantities of every ingredient they use. This will ensure that consumers understand the kind of elements they expose their body to when they consume such food items.
Alcoholic companies have accepted the responsibility of warning their consumers against excessive drinking. These institutions should also warn their customers against excessive consumption of some types of food. They should explain to the consumers the most appropriate amounts that should be taken and inform them why it is important to take these amount. This should be done through labeling.
As part of their corporate social responsibilities, these institutions should use media and other channels of communication to educate consumers on healthy eating. This way, they shall have met their obligation to the consumers and to the government. They will not be held liable when a section of their consumers decides to ignore the warnings.
The Responsibilities of Consumer in Food Ethics
Consumers have a major role to play in food ethics. According to Pence (46), illiteracy levels have gone down in various countries around the world, and most of the consumers are always aware that the type of food they eat poses serious health consequences to them.
Hamburger is one of the most popular snacks, especially among the youth. Grilled chicken and red meat are also very popular. These consumers know, from their learning experience or the articles they read, that these are some of the most dangerous foods because of their levels of cholesterol.
However, they still go ahead to consume these products because of the sheer pleasure they generate from them. This is not only being irresponsible to their own health, but also exposing their families and the government into unnecessary expenditures when they fall sick. For this reason, consumers have a major responsibility in ensuring that they maintain healthy eating.
The responsibility of the consumers’ lies in understanding the type of food they eat in order to avoid what is considered unsafe. As mentioned above, many people around the world are literate. This means that they have the capacity to analyze the type of food they eat in order to ensure that they are safe.
They can take the initiative of analyzing all types of food they eat in order to determine their safety levels. Time and resources taken in such analysis are always much less as compared to the resources that are spent when one falls sick. Through this initiative, they will be able to plan their diets in order to ensure that they eat safe foods.
Consumers also have the responsibility to demand to know the true ingredient of every food they take. Food processors have ignored the request that all their products should be labeled because their consumers are always willing to buy the unlabeled foods. Consumers should reject any food that lacks proper labeling of the ingredients used to prepare them.
Conclusion
Food industry is one of the most important industries in a country’s economy. It is important for all the players in this industry to ensure that they maintain high levels of ethics in order to avoid cases where unhealthy foods are presented to consumers.
Government has the regulatory responsibility to ensure that producers use safe ingredients and label all their products. The producers have the responsibility of using safe ingredients and labeling their products. Consumers have the responsibility of questioning the products presented to them, and ensuring that they only take safe products.
Works Cited
Burgan, Michael. Ethics of Food. London: Raintree, 2012. Print.
Farnworth, Cathy. Creating Food Futures: Trade, Ethics and the Environment. Aldershot, England: Gower, 2008. Print.
Gottwald, Franz-Theo. Food Ethics. New York: Springer, 2010. Print.
Pence, Gregory. The Ethics of Food: A Reader for the 21st Century. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2001. Print.
Pojman, Paul. Food Ethics. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2011. Print.
Vandamme, Jane. Whose Weight Is It Anyway? Essays on Ethics and Eating. Leuven: Acco, 2010. Print.