The CHOOSE FOODÂ PROJECT aims to help producers and consumers make ethical food choices by giving them access to easy to use, high-quality information about food. It is developing:
- A Framework for ethical assessment of the food system
- Educational resources
- Cutting-edge digital toolsÂ
The project aims to guide actors throughout the food value chain to make, market, and choose products more ethically.
To date, our team of experts has articulated 49Â Core Ethical Commitments that set parameters for ethical conduct and goals for ethical improvement of food products. These commitments can guide actors along the food chain who have the power to make ethical improvement to production practices. They also provide guidance to consumers who prefer to buy foods that cohere with their ethical values.
The Commitments delimit ethically unacceptable practices, guide inquiry about ethicality, and identify opportunities for ethical improvement. However, unlike the hundreds of third-party certification programs and static green label initiatives concerned with food, Choose Food does not mandate specific practices. Nor does it focus myopicallyÂ
on a single issue of concern (i.e., animal welfare, fair trade, or organics) to the exclusion of all others. Rather, Choose Food allows for a holistic appraisal of food products, which combats "green washing" and promotes fair competition.
Choose Food appreciates that collective progress in a complex global food system depends on different actors focusing earlier and more concerted effort on certain imperatives and improving supply chains. Thus, Choose Food aims to make genuine progress visible to consumers without demanding -- or creating a false impression of -- absolute fidelity to all possible ethical principles.