The Solution: Part 2

The Solution: Part 2

(Peter Singer and Utilitarianism)

The centralization of food production in America has separated people from the food they eat. Americans are eating meat which has not been properly raised, we eat far more protein than our bodies require and we have little knowledge of the global warming effects. The centralized food production process in has negatively affected our environment, it has ruined the quality of food and it has, ultimately, changed the diets of Americans today.

In chapter three of his book Practical Ethics, Peter Singer argues that since equality for all humans has become an accepted moral standard, we should apply this same moral basis to those outside of our own species.[1] Singer cites Jeremy Bentham, the man he calls the founding father of modern utilitarianism, when comparing the treatment of people with black skin to the current treatment of animals. Bentham says “it may one day come to be recognized that the number of legs [and] the villosity of the skin... are reasons equally insufficient for abandoning a sensitive being to the same fate.” He then brings this compelling statement, “the question is not, Can they reason? nor Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?” Many of Singer’s beliefs in regards to the treatment of animals are derived from modern utilitarianism.

Bentham’s school of thought within utilitarianism states that “pain and pleasure [are] the only intrinsic values in the world” and further “that the good is whatever brings the greatest happiness to the greatest number of people.”[2] Along the same lines, Singer comments on speciesm, the idea that it is justifiable to give preference to beings strictly on the grounds that they are of the species homo sapiens. Singer recognizes that the practice of giving preference to homo sapiens is wrong.

The Solution: Part 3 (Sneak Peek)What does Singer say about centralized food production?

Citations:
[1] Singer, Peter. Practical Ethics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979. 48.
[2] "Philosophy: By Movement / School Modern Utilitarianism." The Basics of Philosophy: A Huge Subject Broken down into Manageable Chunks. Accessed March 26, 2012. http://www.philosophybasics.com/movements_utilitarianism.html.