The Problem of "Big Food" and the Response of an Integrated Catholic Ecological Ethic

Abstract

This dissertation argues that industrial food production, characterized under the term “big food,” is an environmental and social problem that requires a response from Christian theology and ethics. However, previous scholarship addressing “big food” did not confront the intransigent nature of this problem. As a result of this state of the problem, the dissertation poses the question: what is an adequate response to the intransigent problem of “big food?” In response this dissertation argues that a proper response involves an integrated Catholic ecological ethic. An integrated ecological ethic combines the methods of virtue ethics and social ethics to propose virtues within a contextually aware framework. The resources of the Catholic tradition can be utilized to develop an integrated ethic that balances the concerns of ecojustice and environmental justice. The solution proposed involves the development of ecological reformulations of the virtues of charity, prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude. The above virtues are not proposed within a theoretical vacuum, but rather within an awareness of various unjust structures in the United States that support “big food” and habituate the ecological vices of pride, fearlessness, and gluttony. The dissertation makes constructive proposals for structural change to develop structures of “big food” that can promote ecological virtue as opposed to ecological vice. In addition, the dissertation makes several recommendations for personal reforms in relation to food habits so as to move toward ecological virtues.