Shifting the Focus: Food Choice, Paternalism, and State Regulation

Food Ethics 5 (1-2):1-16 (2019)
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Abstract

In this paper, I examine the question of whether there is justification for regulations that place limits on food choices. I begin by discussing Sarah Conly’s recent defense of paternalist limits on food choice. I argue that Conly’s argument is flawed because it assumes a particular conception of health that is not universally shared. I examine this conception of health in some detail, and I argue that we need to shift our focus from individual behaviors and lifestyle to the broader social and environmental context. Such a shift allows us to see the ways in which industry practices are negatively impacting our well-being (a broader concept than “health”). I argue that state regulatory activity surrounding the conditions under which food is grown, processed, marketed, and sold needs to be strengthened. As a result, there are likely to be some indirect limitations on food choice. These indirect limitations are justified, but regulations in which the goal is to change individual behavior or lifestyle are not.

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Jill Dieterle
Eastern Michigan University

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References found in this work

Feminist, Queer, Crip.Alison Kafer - 2013 - Indiana University Press.
Against Autonomy: Justifying Coercive Paternalism.Sarah Conly - 2012 - Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Against autonomy: justifying coercive paternalism.Sarah Conly - 2012 - Journal of Medical Ethics 40 (5):349-349.
The social model of disability.Tom Shakespeare - 2006 - In Lennard J. Davis (ed.), The Disability Studies Reader. Psychology Press. pp. 2--197.

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