CFP: Food and Drink Policies, Paternalism, Free Speech, and Children

Panel on

Food and Drink Policies, Paternalism, Free Speech, and Children

Panel Chairs: Morten Ebbe Juul Nielsen (Copenhagen University) and Helena Siipi (University of Turku)

Panel Discussant: Garrath Williams (Lancaster University)

Section: The Political Theory of Food & Drink Policies

Section Chairs: Emanuela Ceva (University of Pavia), Matteo Bonotti (Queen's University Belfast)

Section: The normative implications of food and drink policies have been relatively neglected by contemporary political theorists. This is surprising given the prominent attention dedicated to the regulation of food and drink in the public policy of contemporary states. The recent horsemeat scandal, for example, has raised many moral and political questions regarding the regulation of food consumption. Similarly, measures such as the implementation of taxes on fat foods and sugary drinks have elicited a growing debate on whether the state has the right to interfere with people’s eating and drinking choices. Moreover, there is a well-recognized need to confront different requests for food options (for example at school or workplace) to suit the dietary habits of people belonging to different religious groups and holding different ethical convictions.

Few systematic attempts have been made yet to show how political, moral and legal theory can provide coherent conceptual and normative frameworks for critically assessing whether and why the state ought to regulate food and drink production, distribution, and consumption and in what ways. The aim of this Section is to fill this gap by offering a forum for political theorists (broadly construed) interested in this subject and thus providing the foundations for further research on this topic.

While the 7th ECPR General Conference has already hosted a Section on Food Governance, contributors on that occasion were mainly from within the field of political science, so they focused primarily on the empirical, strategic, and structural aspects of food governance. Our proposed Section aims to complement and expand the discussions on food and drink policies by investigating their legal and normative dimensions from the perspective of political theory.

Panel: As noted in the description for the section The Political Theory of Food & Drink Policies, measures such as the implementation of taxes on fat foods and sugary drinks have elicited a growing debate on whether the state has the right to interfere with people’s eating and drinking choices. Many recent debates in public health ethics have engaged critically with the individualistic (and anti-paternalistic) liberal approach. At the same time, the rising number of different individual food styles and dietary choices bring about consumer desires for product diversity and information.

This panel aims to reflect on these developments and to relate current debates on paternalism, free speech, and censorship to food and drink policy. Some examples of relevant questions here: Should the state in the name of protecting citizens regulate food and drink advertising and food and drink labels? Do consumers have a right to be informed about the nutritional contents of the food and drinks they purchase? If yes, should the state contribute (for example thrpugh legislation) in providing that information for them?

The above questions concern also children's food and food advertising to children. Do their vulnerability justify additional regulations? Moreover, measures aimed at improving children’s eating habits or reducing childhood obesity may often interfere with what is thought of as the right of parents to make choices for their own children and with the private life of families.

This panel aims to address normative questions concerning whether, when, and how the state ought to intervene and how it ought to balance the interests of the public good and individual consumers, including, but not limited to, children and their parents. We also welcome papers with a more general approach that could bring into focus more systematic questions concerning the issues of paternalism and/or free speech vis-a-vis food and drink policies. Contributions are welcome from the fields of ethics, political philosophy/theory, history of political thought and legal philosophy. Please submit your proposals to both of the following e-mail addresses: [email protected] and [email protected] by 1 February 2014.