A short history of food ethics

Moral concern with food intake is as old as morality itself. In the course of history, however, several ways of critically examining practices of food production and food intake have been developed. Whereas ancient Creek food ethics concentrated on the problem of temperance, and ancient Jewish ethics on the distinction between legitimate and illicit food products, early Christian morality simply refused to attach any moral significance to food intake. Yet, during the middle ages food became one of the principle objects of monastic programs for moral exercise (askesis). During the seventeenth and eighteenth century, food ethics was transformed in terms of the increasing scientific interest in food intake, while in the nineteenth century the social dimension of food ethics was discovered, with the result that more and more attention was given to the production and distribution of food products. Because of the increasing distance between the production and consumption of food products ever since, the outstanding feature of contemporary food ethics is it reliance and dependence on labeling practices.