Ms. Serwin

08/29/04

Summary of “The Ethics of Eating”

In the article, “The Ethics of Eating” which appeared in the May 24, 2002 edition of the National Catholic Reporter, opinion editor Rich Heffern tells readers that for the freshest and most environmentally safe foods, they need to be locally grown.  Heffern quotes Ben Kjelshus, national food activist and cofounder of the Midwest-based Food Circles Networking Project, as saying that “conventional agriculture has become dependent on petrochemicals… [that are] destroying the environment…[with] soil erosion, poisonous runoff in our streams and groundwater, [and] the creation of pesticide- resistant insects” (515).  Every aspect of both production and retailing, according to Kjelshus, is now dominated by a small handful of large corporations and the small family farms cannot compete.

Heffern asserts that there are six areas of consumer concern, one being environmental effects.  He states that the waste from industrial hog farms along with antibiotics, pesticides, and toxic disinfectants are expelled into the environment.  Heffern also says that spills from “vast feces lagoons” (516) seep into out soil and water, killing the fish and poisoning the soils, rivers and public waterways.  The second area of concern discussed by Heffern is food quality and taste.  He remarks about the tomatoes that consumers get at the supermarket are of the green variety.  They are picked early to survive long trips, then they are exposed to ethylene gas to turn them red. Heffern asserts that, according to critics, the tomato “tastes as bland and lifeless as cardboard” (517).  The third area is food safety.  Heffern states that 30 percent of dairy cows are fed bovine growth hormone (BGH) to stimulate milk production and that the milk from BGH injected cows is “more likely to contain dangerous residues of the more than 80 different drugs…used to treat sick cows” (517).  The fourth area of concern according to Heffern is social justice.  He states that field laborers receive few benefits and work in environments with “harmful pesticides, fungicides, and other harmful chemicals” (518).  The fifth area is cruelty to animals.  Heffern says that the pigs on large factory farms are cruelly treated. After impregnation the sow is kept in a stall only large enough to move forward or backward a few inches.  They are fed using a conveyer belt and there is also one to collect the feces.  After giving birth the babies are separated from the mother at three weeks and the mother is again impregnated and goes through the cycle again. The last area of concern is food monopolies.  Heffern states that there are four firms that “control over 80 percent of fed cattle processing and almost 60 percent of hog processing” (520).  He says that such small concentrations of power raises concerns about “uncompetitive and unfair” (520) trade practices. 

Heffern concludes with some words from Bishop Dave Andrews.  Bishop Andrews says that the decision about where our food comes from is up to the consumers.  He says, “Vote with your fork!...Your fork is a lever with which you can change the world” (522).

Works Cited

Heffern, Rich. “The Ethics of Eating.” Writing Arguments a Rhetoric with Readings.

John Ramage et al. New York: Pearson Longman, 2004. 514-522.