Philosophers and yogas of all traditions have had a philosophy of food. Plato famously details an appropriate diet in his work “Republic” (Book II.) Food production, consumption and food ethics were discussed by the Stoics, Locke, Rousseau, Voltaire, Marx, and Nietzsche, and others. In the twentieth century vegetarianism, agricultural ethics, food rights, biotechnology, and gustatory aesthetics have been pondered by philosophers. The philosophy of food is much more than a branch of ethical theory examining metaphysics, epistemology, aesthetics, political theory, and, of course, ethics.

This blog is looking at all issues of food from many perspectives. The problem with the philosophy of food is that it so difficult. Food is vexing and it’s not even clear what it is belonging simultaneously to the worlds of economics, ecology, and culture. It involves vegetables, chemists, and wholesalers; livestock, refrigerators, and cooks; fertilizer, fish, and grocers making it tied up in countless empirical and practical matters that frustrate attempts to think about its essential properties. It is very difficult to disentangle food from its web of production, distribution, and consumption, but this blog aims to give various insights into this topic.