This chapter expands on some themes from the previous chapter and examines several different issues related to the production and consumption of food. Food ethics is much broader than issues related to the use of pesticides and fertilizers, and encompasses such topics as genetic engineering, meat eating, hunting and fishing, and growing food locally. As in the previous chapter, the discussion will include a description of some facts relevant to the ethical and policy issues.

GENETIC ENGINEERING

Heredity is controlled by an organism’s genes, made up of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and located in the chromosomes of every cell. DNA is a long, double-stranded molecule that carries genetic information in the form of linear sequences of four chemical compounds termed nucleotides linked together into long stretches. The four nucleotides (also called bases) are: adenine (A), which pairs with thymine (T), and cytosine (C), which pairs with guanine (G). Because of this unique base-pairing rule, DNA is capable of self-replication because either strand can serve as a template for synthesis of the other strand.