Fourth Annual Fall Ethics Symposium 2009
Ethics in Everyday Life: The Ethics of Food
This is the fourth year of our annual Fall Ethics Symposium, a joint undertaking by the RCA Program in Ethics of the CPPE, Sacramento State, and Cosumnes River College.
This year's topic focuses on the very timely and important matter of food. It is far too easy to go through the day not wondering about what we eat -- where it comes from, who produced it, what effect it has on others (including the community, animals, the environment), whether it is even healthy.
This Symposium will bring together scientists, ethicists and professionals who will explore some of the very challenging ethical problems relating to food, including those concerning genetic modification, animal welfare, agricultural workers, and dietary health.
We invite you to join us to consider how the old adage, "You are what you eat", applies to you, your community, and the world.
This Symposium is a day-long event, scheduled for Monday, November 9, 2009. It will be held on the Sacramento State campus, in the Hinde Auditorium of the University Union.
For a campus and parking map please link here. Please note that free event parking has been made available in Lot 10, no permits are necessary.
This year the symposium has been organized by:
Dr. Russell DiSilvestro, 2009 Symposium Director
Dr. Rick Schubert, 2009 Symposium Executive Director
We would like to thank our supporters:
Sacramento Region Community Foundation
Office of the President, Cosumnes River College
Office of the President, Sacramento State
Larkspur Landing Hotels
Please bring a donation of non-perishable food for Sacramento Food Bank and Family Services. We will have collections bins on-site!
Monday, November 9 , 2009
8:00-8:30a.m. Reception, Redwood Room (Light refreshments served.)
8:30-9:00 Opening Remarks, Hinde Auditorium
Christina M. Bellon, Director, Center for Practical and Professional Ethics
Joe Sheley, Provost and Academic Vice President, Sacramento State
Dr. Deborah Travis, President, Cosumnes River College
Rick Schubert, Symposium Executive Director, Cosumnes River College, Philosophy
9:00-10:15 Session I: Panel on Genetically Modified Organisms
Panelist: Robert Jones, CSU Chico
Title: The Ethics of Genetically Modified Animals.
Panelist: Kent J. Bradford, Professor & Academic Director, Seed Biotechnology Center, UC Davis
Title: The Ethics of Biotechnology for Agricultural Sustainability.
Panelist: Zelig Kevin Golden, Center for Food Safety
Title: Your Right to Know: GMOs and the Future of Food
10:30-11:45 Session II: Food and Community
Speaker: Angus Wright, Sacramento State
Title: The Human Costs of Food Production: Not a Simple Utilitarian Calculus.
12:00-1:20 p.m. Lunch Break
1:30-2:45 Session III: Food and Health
Speakers: Dianne Hyson, Sacramento State, and Tissa Kappagoda, UC, Davis.
3:00-4:30 Keynote Session: Animals as Food
Keynote Speaker: Alastair Norcross, University of Colorado at Boulder
Title: It Shouldn't Happen to a Dog, or a Chicken: Why You Shouldn't Eat Meat.
Commentator: Robert Jones, CSU Chico
4:30-6:00 Reception, Redwood Room
Light refreshments will be served. Please join us for further conversation and… well, food.
Meet Our Speakers
Robert C. Jones is Assistant Professor of Philosophy and director of The Center for Applied and Professional Ethics at California State University, Chico. He earned his PhD in philosophy from Stanford in 2005. His dissertation, The Moral Significance of Animal Cognition, investigated the properties that bear on the moral considerability of both human and nonhuman animals. His current research interests also include food ethics, environmental ethics, mind and cognition, species studies, and the question of what it is to be human. He was a post-doctoral fellow at Stanford and a visiting researcher for the Ethics in Society Project at Wesleyan University in Connecticut.
Kent J. Bradford is a Professor in the Department of Plant Sciences, and founder and director of the Seed Biotechnology Center at the University of California Davis. He earned his PhD in Plant Physiology from UC Davis, and teaches courses on seed biology and production, and on biotechnology, ethics and philosophy of science. He researches diverse areas of seed science and publishes widely on seed biology. His current interests are in identifying the genetic and molecular mechanisms regulating seed germination, in mechanisms of seed deterioration and methods to extend seed longevity, and in applying mathematical models to describe and explain seed germination and dormancy behavior.
Zelig Kevin Golden is a Staff Attorney in the San Francisco office of the Center for Food Safety, where he works on legal and policy issues related to genetically engineered crops and food safety laws. He has represented CFS and consumers in landmark lawsuits, including the GE alfalfa and GE sugar beets cases, which have demonstrated that GE crops pose environmental harms and require careful environmental assessment. Zelig received a BS in ecology from the University of Washington and a JD (with a certificate in environmental law) from the University of California, Boalt Hall School of Law. As a fellow with the law firm Adams, Broadwell, Joseph & Cardozo, he worked on environmental health and safety issues and litigated environmental cases on behalf of California labor unions. Before law school, Zelig farmed organically in Idaho and worked with Costa Rican farmers to develop local, organic alternatives to chemical pesticides.
Angus Wright is a founder and Professor Emeritus of the Environmental Studies Department of California State University-Sacramento. He earned his PhD in Latin American History from the University of Michigan in 1976. He is the author of The Death of Ramon Gonzalez: The Modern Agricultural Dilemma and co-author of Nature’s Matrix: Linking Conservation, Agriculture, and Food Sovereignty. He writes on environmental history, the social and environmental consequences of agriculture, and property ownership in the Americas. From 2005-2007 he served as a lead author on the International Agricultural Assessment of Science, Technology, and Development.
Dianne Hyson is Associate Professor and Chair of the Family and Consumer Sciences Department at CSU-Sacramento. She completed her undergrad work, dietetic internship, and MS in Experimental Medicine in Canada and her PhD in Nutrition Science and postdoctoral work at UC-Davis. Her teaching and research interests relate to diet and chronic disease risk, particularly the effects of dietary fat on inflammation, oxidation and biomarkers of risk for cardiovascular disease. She has analyzed the diets of Asian populations and collaborated with medical teams in Sri Lanka and Thailand to address the issue of increasing cardiovascular risk including onsite workshops in these countries.
C. Tissa Kappagoda is Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine,Director of the Coronary Heart Disease Reversal Program, and Director of the Cardiac Rehabilitation Program at the University of California Davis. He got his MD in 1965 from the University of Ceylon in Sri Lanka, and specializes in regression of atherosclerosis and methods for restoring endothelium-derived relaxing factor. He is interested in treating coronary atherosclerosis, obesity, and type 2 diabetes by lifestyle modifications like exercise training, low-fat diet, and stress management. His research focuses on heart failure, endothelial findings, and clinical trials of nutritional supplements.
Alastair Norcross is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He earned a BA in classics from Oxford University and a PhD in philosophy from Syracuse University. His research, which is primarily in ethical theory, is focused on the articulation and defense of “consequentialist” ethical theories like utilitarianism. He also works in several areas of applied ethics, such as euthanasia, abortion, and animal rights. He is working on a book arguing that consequentialist ethical theories should not be interpreted as theories of either the rightness or goodness of actions, but instead as “scalar” theories that evaluate actions as better or worse than possible alternatives.
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