The impossibility of an ethical consumer

J. Karlsson

pp. 183-188

in: Helena Röcklinsberg, Per Sandin (eds), The ethics of consumption, Wageningen, Wageningen Academic Publishers, 2013

Abstract

The thesis of this article is that the notion of an ethical food consumer is untenable unless it is coupled with a conception of food citizenship. The main arguments delivered against the notion of ethical food consumption are that consumption does not take the operations of moral psychology into account, nor afford means to tackle structural problems inherent in the relation between consumer and producer. The notion of an ethically aware food citizen is on the other hand capable of handling these problems head on. Hence, a realistic food ethics has to operate with an integrative view of consumption and citizenship.