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J. M. REGENSTEIN, Dept. of Food Science, Cornell Univ., 8 Stocking Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853-7201 Having received Ethics in Agriculture training (at NCSU), I have struggled to include ethics in my classes (and in my life). Interestingly, when it came to religious slaughter (kosher and halal), the workshop's teaching materials prepared by a previous class were misleading. We produced a more balanced presentation. Over the years I have tried to incorporate ethics into teaching, mostly stand-alone seminars/lectures. In my kosher/halal food regulations course, I have not been successful in small-group discussions because many students have strong feelings, are not scientists, and are uncomfortable with any forced discussion in such a large, diverse class on such a sensitive topic as slaughter. This year, I moved the animal welfare discussions into introductory meat science (Animal Science, 47 students) with a lecture plus assignment, and into the meats section of food chemistry (Food Science, 14 students), with mainly a written assignment. Students were asked to write a short essay on meat eating, vegetarianism, veganism, animal rights, animal welfare, and/or religious slaughter. The responses ranged from people who did not want to engage the ethical issues (for example, "I eat meat because I like it and it tastes good"), to those with strong religious beliefs, to those who did tackle some of the more significant ethical issues. The final essays were interesting and varied, and were shared with the class; I felt that this may be the best method to get some discussion or thoughts about ethics into regular lecture classes with very full traditional schedules. I do think I will need to revise my assignment somewhat to force a little more emphasis on ethics. I will try this essay format in the kosher/halal class in the spring.
Session 7, Food science education: A question of ethics
2005 IFT Annual Meeting, July 15-20 - New Orleans, Louisiana |