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New York University
Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health
E33.2288 ETHICAL CONTROVERSIES IN NUTRITION, FOOD STUDIES,
AND PUBLIC HEALTH
Spring 2010 [version as of January 26, 2009]
Registration information
30 hours: 3 points
Time: Mondays, 4:55 – 6:35 p.m.
Place: 194 Mercer, Room 207
Instructor: Marion Nestle, Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public
Health marion.nestle@nyu.edu (see www.foodpolitics.com). Office hours by appointment (via email), 35 W 4th St, 12th Floor.
Assistant: Maya Joseph josem080@newschool.edu or (941) 468-0305
Office hours: Mondays 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. at Third Rail coffeehouse, 240 Sullivan Street (between
Bleecker and West 3rd). Also by appointment.
Course Description:
This course deals with ethical values—moral judgments of right and wrong and good and bad-related to food systems, defined here as the connections and interconnections among agriculture,
food, nutrition, and public health from the standpoint of food production and consumption. The
course is concerned with such matters as the health and nutritional consequences of food
production and marketing, dietary advice to the public, and food choices. Through case studies
involving extensive reading and analysis, students investigate and analyze current ethical dilemmas
in such areas as industrial and alternative agriculture and their effects on farm animals, farm
workers, and the environment; food product advertising and marketing; hunger, malnutrition, and
ways to treat conditions of undernutrition; dietary guidance; and school food. Each case illustrates
one or more ethical issues and their implications for diverse stakeholders in food systems:
producers, marketers, government officials, health professionals, and the public.
What is ethics?
According to Wikipedia (not a bad starting point), ethics, also known as moral philosophy, is a
branch of philosophy which seeks to address questions about morality, such as what the
fundamental semantic, ontological, and epistemic nature of ethics or morality is (meta-ethics), how
moral values should be determined (normative ethics), how a moral outcome can be achieved in
specific situations (applied ethics), how moral capacity or moral agency develops and what its nature
is (moral psychology), and what moral values people actually abide by (descriptive ethics).
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Readings
All students are expected to do all the reading for every class, to try to make sense of it, and to
come to class with thoughts, comments, and questions about the material.
Books: The course requires extensive reading as a basis for class discussion. The six required
books are listed in the outline under Assignments. Most have been published within the last year or
so (one is not out until later in the semester) and represent distinct, current points of view.
Papers: Additional required readings either are posted on Blackboard or linked to the Internet.
Current events: Read a daily paper of your choice—in hard copy or online—to keep up with current
events related to class topics. With luck, Congress will pass food safety legislation and we will hear
about development of the 2010 edition of the Dietary Guidelines during the period in which this
class meets.
Evaluation
1. Class participation and presentations (40%)
Class participation: This class will be run as a seminar, not a lecture course. Participation in
discussions is essential. All students are expected to provide comments in class on all assigned
readings. In every class session, a few students will assume primary responsibility for discussion of
their parts of the reading, summarizing key ethical issues, and commenting on them. Presenters for
the first couple of weeks will be organized during the first class. The final presentation schedule
should be set by week #3. Presenters for each week should divide up the material so each
presenter is responsible for covering one part of the material in detail (but in the context of the
readings as a whole).
Presentations: Aim for 5 to 7 minutes to explain in your own words what engaged you in your share
of the readings, what you think the authors meant, or what you found particularly interesting,
difficult, or absurd. In preparing your presentation, you should assume that all students have read
the material. Do not—under any circumstances—waste class time by summarizing anything except
the key points or the particular ethical issues raised in the material. The point is to demonstrate
engagement with the material, even if it’s just to explain what you hated about it or could not
understand.
2. Term paper (60%)
Students will write a term paper to be developed in consultation with instructors. Papers should be
about 15 pages of text (double spaced). Additional pages can be used for references (required); an
annotated list of Internet and library sources (required); and tables, figures, or appendices
(optional). Papers are expected to be presented in standard format for research term papers,
putting footnotes at end as endnotes. If you are not sure how to do this, ask. Papers must produce
evidence of substantial research into library and Internet sources. They must not be plagiarized
(an issue to be discussed in class). To construct the paper, select an issue of interest, identify the
ethical issues relevant to that issue following the model in the reading by Wilmut and Bruce, provide
a summary of those issues, chose a position on at least one of them, and defend that position.
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Note key dates:
 On February 22 and March 1, class time will be set aside for students to present brief
summaries of their proposed term paper topics.
 March 22 turn in a summary of the ethical issues in your term paper topic (following the
model in Wilmut & Bruce). This should be no more than 2 typed pages.
 On May 3, there will be an opportunity for brief summary presentations of key issues and
findings from term papers.
 Term papers DUE: May 14, 5:00 p.m.
CLASS
January
25
February 1
SCHEDULE OF TOPICS, ASSIGNMENTS, AND READINGS
TOPIC
ASSIGNMENTS
Introduction
Wikipedia entry on ethics http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics
Background:
ethics and ethical
issues
Blackburn, S. Being Good: An Introduction to Ethics. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2003.
Dahan NM, Gittens M. Business and the public affairs of slavery: a
discursive approach of an ethical public issue. J Business Ethics, 10 July
2009. Used with permission.
DeLind LB. Hitching our wagons to the wrong stars? Considering the local
food movement (paper presented to a May 2009 conference). Used with
permission.
February
8
Food ethics:
historical
perspective
Coff C. Excerpts: Food and ethics in history; and Food ethics and the
production history. In: The Taste for Ethics: An Ethic of Food
Consumption. Springer, 2006: 16-30 plus references.
FAO. Ethical Issues in Food and Agriculture
http://www.fao.org/DOCREP/003/X9601E/X9601E00.HTM
February
15
February
22
President’s Day
holiday
Food ethics:
issues
Peter Singer and Jim Mason. The Ethics of What We Eat: Why Our Food
Choices Matter. Rodale Books, 2007.
DUE: Half the class proposes term paper topics.
March 1
Case study:
eating animals
Michael Pollan. Chapter 17. The ethics of eating animals. In: Omnivore’s
Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. Penguin, 2007:304-333.
Jonathan Safran Foer. Eating Animals. Little, Brown and Company, 2009.
Whaley SE, et al. The impact of dietary intervention on the cognitive
development of Kenyan school children. J Nutrition 2003;133: 3965s–
3971s.
Nestle M. Plagiarism case study.
DUE: The rest of the class proposes term paper topics.
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March 8
March 15
Case study:
hunger and what
to do about it
Pinstrup-Anderson P. Eliminating poverty and hunger in developing
countries: a moral imperative or enlightened self-interest? In: PinstrupAnderson P, Sandøe P, eds. Ethics,Hunger and Globalization: In Search of
Appropriate Priorities. Springer, 2007:15-27.
DeSchuetter O. The right to food and the political economy of hunger.
Rome, November 18, 2009 at
www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/food/docs/McDougall18November2009.pdf.
FAO. The Right to Food. Read Voluntary Guidelines Parts I and II;
browse Part III at http://www.fao.org/righttofood/publi_01_en.htm.
Case study:
weaning foods
and food aid
Medicins sans Frontieres. Malnutrition: How much is being spent? An
analysis of nutrition funding flows 2004-2007, November 2009.
http://doctorswithoutborders.org/publications/reports/2009/MSFMalnutrition-How-Much-is-Being-Spent.pdf.
Enserink M. The peanut butter debate. Science 2008;322:3638.http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/reprint/322/5898/36.pdf
Isanaka S, et al. Effect of preventive supplementation with ready-to-use
therapeutic food on the nutritional status, mortality, and morbidity of
children aged 6 to 60 months in Niger. JAMA 2009;301:277-285.
http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/reprint/301/3/277
Holla R, Menon L. The hunger bazaar: ethical issues in public private
partnerships in nutrition and conflicts of interest. MFC Bulletin [India],
August-September 2008.
Spring break
March 22
DUE: Ethical issues outline for term paper topic (using Wilmut & Bruce as
model)
Case study:
GMOs
Thompson, P.B. Food Biotechnology in Ethical Perspective, 2nd ed.
Chapter 2: The presumptive case
for food biotechnology (pp. 55-72). Chapter 7: Ethics and environmental
impact (pp. 165-194). Chapter 8. Social Consequences (pp. 195-231).
Bibliography (pp. 309-334).
FAO. Genetically Modified Organisms, Consumers, Food Safety and the
Environment.
http://www.fao.org/DOCREP/003/X9602E/x9602e04.htm#P0_0
Case study:
cloning
Wilmut I, Bruce D. Dolly mixture: cloning by nuclear transfer to improve
genetic engineering in animals. In: Bruce D, Bruce A, eds. Engineering
Genesis: The Ethics of Genetic Engineering in Non-Human Species.
Earthscan, 1998:71-76.
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March 29
Case study:
dietary advice
Dietary Guidelines for Americans
2010 edition: Mestel R. 2010 means…(drumroll)…new dietary guidelines.
Los Angeles Times, January 12, 2010 at
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/booster_shots/2010/01/its-2010-now-and-we-all-know-what-that-means-yes-time-for-a-brand-new-iteration-ofthe-dietary-guidelines-for-americans-t.html. For current status, meeting
reports, etc., see http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/dietaryguidelines.htm.
2005 edition: http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/DGAs2005Guidelines.htm.
Earlier editions: http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/DGAsPreviousGuidelines.htm
Gussow JD, Clancy KL. Dietary guidelines for sustainability. J Nutrition
Education 1986;18(1):1-5.
Gussow JD. Dietary guidelines for sustainability: twelve years later. J
Nutrition Education 1999;31(4):194-200.
Nestle M. Ethical dilemmas in choosing a healthful diet: Vote with your
fork! Proceedings of the Nutrition Society (UK) 2000;59:619-629.
Joseph M, Nestle M. The ethics of food. Lahey Clinic Journal of Medical
Ethics 2009;16(1):1-7.
http://www.lahey.org/Pdf/Ethics/Ethics_Winter_2009.pdf
Case study: food
marketing
Smart Choices. See posts at www.foodpolitics.com . Click on Smart
Choices and read in chronological order, starting from the first post in
April on page 2, and following relevant links.
April 5
Case study:
school food
Poppendieck, J. Free for All: Fixing School Food in America. University
of California Press, 2010.
April 12
Case study:
sustainable
agriculture
FAO. Ethics of Sustainable Agriculture Intensification
ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/007/j0902e/j0902e00.pdf
Wendell Berry. Bringing It to the Table: On Farming and Food.
Counterpoint, 2009.
April 19
April 26
Case study:
climate change
Anna Lappé. Diet for a Hot Planet. Bloomsbury, 2010 (book will be
available in mid-March).
May 3
Student presentations
May 13,
5:00 p.m.
Term papers due