What is food? Eating and Mutual Aid

Abstract

Will changing how we act save the world? Will eating plant-based foods save us from climate catastrophes? Can we transform large-scale pollution and ecological devastation through our personal lifestyle choices? How much does it matter how we travel, shop, or consume things? In this talk, Dr. Shotwell will share some approaches to answering these questions. She will explain what she thinks is a useful distinction between ethical decisions based on substances (what something is) and ethical decisions based on placing ourselves in relationships. She will outline the idea of political care as a form of “mutual aid,” which can help us be in good relationships with our devastated, hurting, good, world.