Food, Family, and Justice

Food is often produced, distributed, and consumed in families. What does this imply for food justice and for justice in, of and for the family? Current debates over the family – over parental authority, children’s upbringing, the right to procreate, the reproduction of injustice, and so on – tend to neglect the special place of food in health and development, relationships and culture, economies and the environment, and thus the special challenges that food poses within and for families and in families’ relations with broader society. Work in food justice, on the other hand, often focuses on individuals and structures outside the family – on issues of individual autonomy, public health, food systems, democracy, and the environment, say. This conference aims to bring these two fields of political philosophy into closer dialogue, by exploring aspects and issues such as the following.

• Children’s rights or childhood goods regarding food

• Intergenerational justice in food and families, e.g. sustainability, historical injustice

• Regulating the family regarding food, e.g. for public health, equality, welfare, education, animals

• Parental authority and responsibilities for children’s food-related health, autonomy, or upbringing

• Food-related responsibilities of or for other family members, e.g. the aged

• Food cultures and relationship goods

• Gender roles regarding food

• Pluralism and democracy, e.g. religious food traditions

• Families and public health or nutrition- or diet-related illness, e.g. obesity, anorexia

• Paternalism in food choices, e.g. toward parents or adolescents

• Industry or business responsibilities for family food choices

Conference speakers will include Matteo Bonotti (Monash), Samantha Brennan (Guelph), Clare Chambers (Cambridge), Anca Gheaus (Central European University), Daniel Weinstock (McGill), Garrath Williams (Lancaster), and Fiona Woollard (Southampton).

The conference will be held at John Cabot University in Rome, Italy, from the afternoon of Friday, June 21, to the morning of Sunday, June 23.

Online participation will be welcome.

Conference papers will be considered for publication in a special issue or collected volume, to be proposed to the Journal of Applied Philosophy in the first instance.

The conference is sponsored by the Society for Applied Philosophy and by the President’s Office and the Departments of History and Humanities and of Political Science and International Affairs at John Cabot University.

There will be no registration fee, but participants may be asked to contribute to the costs of meals.

Graduate and other participants are encouraged to apply to the Society for Applied Philosophy for financial support.

The conference is organized by Tom Bailey (John Cabot) and Matteo Bonotti (Monash). Please contact Tom Bailey ([email protected]) with enquiries.