Global Food Ethics & Policy Program

Program Overview

Research and Evidence Generation | Education and Training | Policy and Strategy |History

Research and Evidence Generation

We generate and disseminate new scientific evidence and ethics scholarship relevant to food systems. Our trans-disciplinary research integrates perspectives from science, ethics, policy, and practice. Areas of focus of our research include:

  1. Improving food system decision making
  2. Understanding how foodscapes influence diets
  3. Exploring the most vexing ethical debates in food systems dialogues and policy

Education and Training

We prepare the next generation of educators, policymakers, and development practitioners to become leaders in sustainable food systems, policy, and ethics.

Courses Offered

Policy and Strategy

We provide guidance on ethical, political, social, health, and nutrition issues interconnected with food systems. We research sustainable solutions that achieve more equitable food security by working with partners such as policymakers, civil society, farmers, and communities to provide on-the-ground solutions.

History

The GFEP program evolved from the three-year Global Food Ethics Project, launched in 2012 by the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics, Bloomberg School of Public Health, and the Nitze School of Advanced International Studies. The aim of the original project was to address conflicting visions of what it meant to feed the world ethically and to identify a path forward, even in the absence of consensus about ethical commitments and values. The main product of the Global Food Ethics Project was the 7 by 5 Agenda for Ethics and Global Food Security (May 2015), which proposed seven projects to make progress on ethics and global food security within five years, including:

1. Ethical Challenges in Projections of Global Food Demand, Supply, and Prices
2. The Food Sovereignty Movement and the Exceptionality of Food and Agriculture
3. The Case for the Professionalization of Farming
4. Global Agricultural Research and Development: Ethics, Priorities, and Funders
5. Climate-Smart and Climate-Just Agriculture
6. Ethics of Meat Consumption in High-Income and Middle-Income Countries
7. Choose Food