What are some examples of ethics challenges that industry players experienced?
In an industry as personal as food and tobacco, there are naturally many ethical challenges companies face on a daily basis. There is a difference between buying clothing and purchasing food, something that you plan on putting into your body. People like to know exactly how their food was produced, what exactly goes in to it, and any other details before they sit down and take a bite. Through a bit of research, I found there are four categories which companies in this industry have to consider when looking at ethical matters. They are production of distribution, marketing, fair trade and justice issues, and the environmental effect. First, I will take a look at production and distribution in the food industry. Surely more than any other industry, the importance of sanitary conditions triumphs all other issues. If you sweatshirt was made in less than perfect sanitary conditions, that’s not too big of an issue, but if your chicken was not prepared in sanitary conditions, there is going to be a problem. Companies need to constantly monitor hygiene, quality control and health and safety of production. In the meat products industry, companies must keep a careful watch on animal welfare and treatment. In terms of produce and all things grown on farms, companies must consider the misuse of water resources and the impact on other farmers as well as the improper use of pesticides and other chemicals. Other issues include soil degradation, high transport costs and carbon emissions, and controversy over genetically modified crops.
Moving on to marketing, there are many challenges and ethical issues food and tobacco companies face. First, they must keep watch for marketing campaigns that could encourage or lead to obesity. Also, wasteful packaging or packaging that forces the consumer to purchase way more than needed. Other ethical marketing issues include aggressive campaigns toward the venerable (children) for less than healthy products. Concerning tobacco, the marketing dilemma seems obvious. These companies are promoting a product and trying to create a demand even though they know the harmful damages their products are proved to cause. With food products, it is vital that the packaging contains information pertaining to health benefits and costs. Failure to do such things could and should result in public scrutiny from the media and the consumers.
The next ethical issue in this industry is the topic of fair trade and trade justice issues. This includes paying a fair price to all input products involved in their product. This includes supporting local farmers and communities by inviting consumers to pay a slightly higher price which is passed on to these often underpaid producers. While driving down prices may be a benefit for consumers in rich developed countries but it is ethically inappropriate because it does not provide an adequate reward for the labor of the farmers and producers in underdeveloped country.
Finally on to the ethical issues associated with the environment. Companies in the food industry, which directly deal with the environment with the production of their product, should treat the environment with an attitude of respect and sustainability. This may include things such as policies that ban or evaluate the use of pesticides, antibiotics, herbicides and hormones. Other policies include those toward carbon emissions possibly with a preference toward locally grown products to decrease transportation. Companies also should avoid the destruction of traditional forests in order to create plantations. Lastly, companies in this industry need to have a respect for small farmers and their practices as well as awareness of overproduction and waste products.
In the news recently there has been an ‘event’ that pertains to ethical issues in this industry. It may be unthinkable, but one of the most delicious foods we enjoy, chocolate, comes from the labor of child slaves. Seventy to seventy-five percent of the world’s cocoa beans are grown on small farms in West Africa. There are an estimated 100,000 children working the fields, many against their will, to produce chocolate products enjoyed by developed nations. Ten years ago, US lawmakers took action to stop child labor in the industry and signed into law the Cocoa Protocol on September 19, 2001. While it is now illegal for children to work on these cocoa farms, an estimated 100,000 children are involved in the worst forms of child labor throughout Ivory Coast. Many of these children are smuggled in from Mali and Burkina Faso to work on the plantations. Because of economic problems and war throughout the region, there has been little progress on the issue in the last ten years. In reaction to these events, CNN invited 5 cocoa manufactures and 5 chocolate manufactures on air to talk about their stance on the issue. Six of them simply did not respond to the issue, including household names of Hershey and Nestle. Mars says they are deeply concerned and striving to reach a permanent solution to the issue despite the difficult task at hand. Kraft says it working with others to support the protocol. Others say the companies will release a joined statement in the days to come. A spokesperson for the company says the reductions in child labor are not enough. Through the various statements it seems like they are looking at this issue through a negative light and not with passion and desperateness to complete this task. It seems as if the companies do care about the unfair labor used to create their inputs, but are subconsciously aware of the fact that when this issue is fixed, the prices of cocoa will dramatically increase which will lead to an increase in their prices. The companies care about the issue, but almost seem to be milking the cheap labor as much as possible, considering costs more important than working conditions.
http://www.methodist.org.uk/downloads/ei_ethical_issues_relating_to_food_industry.pdf
http://thecnnfreedomproject.blogs.cnn.com/2011/09/19/the-human-cost-of-chocolate/
http://thecnnfreedomproject.blogs.cnn.com/2011/09/21/chocolate-cocoa-industries-response/
Good job on narrowing down into 4 criteria. I do agree, product safety is the number one priority. It is interesting that you say it is wasteful for "packaging that forces the consumer to purchase way more than needed." I thought consumers want "bang for their buck." Am I interpreting this wrong? Also, do you know how they are treating their workers when companies outsourced to other countries?
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