Symposium 2007 on Food and Morality
a report on proceedings

The 26th Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery, on the theme of “Food and Morality,”  took place at St Catherine’s College, Oxford from 7-9 September 2007. To open our proceedings Ruth Reichl, editor-in-chief of the world’s oldest and most successful food magazine, Gourmet, delivered an updated version of the Tanner lectures she gave at Yale in 2005. Her discussion of how to eat ethically touched upon most of the weekend’s issues and concluded with a (true) parable of a young man she knows who attends the famous American Deep Springs College, the all-male liberal arts college located on a cattle-ranch and alfalfa farm in California’s High Desert. The new student is torn between the ethical vegetarianism he adopted while at school, and what he sees as the equally important ethical principle that the raising of animals for food should be accomplished in precisely the humane, caring way that it is done at Deep Springs, and that this food should not be wasted.
            A panel on particular foods that present ethical difficulties followed the opening address. This began with John Scharffenberger, who two years ago sold his company, which made the highest quality chocolate in America, to Hershey’s. He spoke about the concept of trading fairly, using the cacao bean as his example.  It was interesting to note that cacao farmers gain more from cultivating better quality beans, such as those used in dark chocolate; so perhaps it is more ethical to it eat than milk chocolate, which is made from inferior beans.
            The chairman’s introduction of Raymond Blanc, chef patron of Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons explained that he’d been asked to speak on Kobe beef, rather than foie gras, on the grounds that, while there can be argument about whether the production of foie gras is inhumane, there can be no doubt that Kobe beef production is cruel.  Blanc began by pointing out that there is little land in Japan suitable for grazing, so when beef production began, relatively recently in the country’s history, it was inevitable that the cattle would be fed grain, which is not a natural diet for ruminants whose digestive system is keyed to grass. He described his own efforts, some years ago, to overcome the secrecy of the producers and inspect the production of Kobe beef from feeding and housing through slaughter. Finally he learned why it was so difficult to get an introduction: the cattle are kept in confining pens, so that they do not toughen their muscles by exercising them; some of them could, in any case, only walk with difficulty; and the slaughter was in a filthy, open field, in front of other beasts about to be killed. The vaunted beer-feeding and massage routines were not much in evidence. Nowadays, much Wagyu/Kobe beef production is done, from start to finish, in America and Australia, but even so a very large number of animals are bred and pastured in America, before being shipped to Japan for fattening and slaughter.
            Henrietta Green, of www.foodloversbritain.com, spoke about the quality of chicken. Quoting Jeremy Bentham on animals, she reminded us that, from the chickens’ point of view, the only thing that mattered was that they were capable of suffering, and that this had to be our own moral springboard. But she also insisted that, from the consumer’s point of view, what mattered most was the eating quality of the chicken and its eggs and remarked that it was a happy fact that good animal welfare standards result in better quality food for humans.
            Prize-winning Italian film director, Armando Manni, who makes what many say is as the world’s best olive oil, and  is indisputably the world’s most expensive oil (www.manni.biz), talked about the difficulties of labelling “extra virgin” olive oil. Though there is no problem in specifying the chemical analysis of extra virgin oil, because the molecules that preserve the qualities of the oil are so easily degraded by heat and light, the bottle of oil that genuinely was extra virgin at the time of bottling is extremely unlikely still to qualify for extra virgin status by the time it has reached the consumer.
            Tim Lang, Professor of Food Policy at City University, summed up by stating that, though there are clear ethical problems about the food supply — from questions of animal welfare, to environmental concerns, to quality control and to even matters of personal responsibility — it is difficult at the moment even to speak of public policies in connection with these.
            Papers given by Symposiasts ranged from Colleen Taylor Sen’s on the radical vegetarianism of Indian’s Jains; to Art historian Gillian Riley’s illustrated talk on what 17th century Dutch painting tells about their ambivalence about the pleasures of eating and drinking; to Bel S. Castro’s on how the portrayal of Filipino villagers as dog-eaters in the 1904 St Louis World Fair provided a rationale for American imperial policy; to Bruce Kraig’s tongue-in-cheek advocacy of eating your own pets; to Raymond Sokolov, Sally Grainger and Christopher Grocock’s erudite discussions of the ethics of Epicureanism in antiquity; to Susan Weingarten’s discussion of Passover foods and the Blood Libel; and to Kyri Watson-Claflin’s disquisition on how Les Halles and the Moral Market revealed early 20th century Parisians disdain of refrigeration. Cathy K. Kaufman’s exhaustive inventory of the literature on foie gras production and its moral status concluded that the sole ethical problem in non-industrial foie gras production was the statistic that ducks and geese that undergo gavage have a slightly higher pre-slaughter death rate than non-foie gras birds. Otherwise, the scientific evidence supports those who say foie gras production is not cruel and, therefore, the laws banning its production or sale are not in the genuine interests of animal welfare but are modern sumptuary laws, often generated by class issues. In “How Clean is Your Plate,” philosopher Steven Kramer brought his discipline to bear on the perennial questions of how to eat ethically.
            There were more than 180 in attendance this year, which is getting on for the optimum size for the Symposium. There were many new faces, of all ages; and the vibes were good, even as we were shooed out of the auditorium at 5.0 on Sunday, to make way for the next conference. There was a praise for the accommodation and for the location of St Catz, near the centre of Oxford.
           The Symposium began at Friday lunchtime with a Waugh-inspired Decline and Fall picnic followed by punting, organised by the American Friends of the Oxford Symposium. The evening featured a special screening of Peter Greenaway’s 1989 film, The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, introduced by Dr. Sokolov. He also took a starring role in Alicia Rios’s Surrealist playlet that has become a beloved annual feature of the Symposium. Entitled ¡PROHIBIDÍSIMO!, narrated by Anissa Helou, and set in restaurant, it involved Rios as a waitress attempting to encourage Sokolov, a sight-impaired diner, to choose between menus that were dangerous, wildly extravagant or completely unspeakable. In the end he ordered rabbit, served by Ursula Heinzelmann, who looked stunning in a Playboy bunny uniform that Dr Sokolov acquired via the Internet.
            The Ethical Dinner, prepared by St Catz’ chef Tim Kelsey in consultation with Caroline Conran and Anissa Helou, was based entirely on ingredients sourced within 25 miles of Oxford. Following it, many Symposiasts adjourned to the billiards room, where Alicia Rios presided over an Edible Hats workshop. Counters laden with fruit and vegetables, breadrolls as well as Indian and Middle Eastern breads, plus the remains of the Waugh picnic – including open-face cucumber, and smoked salmon sandwiches – were the basic materials for this spectacular millenary event.
            After Sunday lunch of proper free-range, organic roast chicken, New Theatre Works (www.newtheatreworks.co.uk) performed their filthy, rude, sexy, messy, silly and utterly hilarious theatre of food piece, “Another Cook Up at the Oxford Symposium.”

            It should be noted that the Symposium is now solvent. It owes this, not to good fortune, but to the dedicated and unflagging efforts of several Trustees, of whom the first among equals is the prize-winning cookery author Sri Owen (www.sriowen.com), who retires from the board this year to work with her husband, Roger Owen, on their magnum opus,  The Oxford Companion to Southeast Asian Food. Sri has raised many thousands of pounds, virtually by herself, by hosting fund-raising meals, and by attracting some very remarkable prizes for the raffles and auctions over which she presided, as head of the Symposium’s fund-raising activities. Sri inspires affection as well as admiration among us, and she will be thought of with gratitude by future Symposiasts who benefit from grants made possible by the reserves she has helped to build up. Others who deserve mention in connection with fund-raising are Cherry Ripe, our Australian Trustee, and all the American Friends, led by Ray Sokolov and Carolin Young. Of course, we also owe immense thanks to Patsy Iddison, the Organiser, and Phil Iddison, the Treasurer, without whose mighty work the symposium simply would not happen at all.

Trust News

At the AGM on Friday, 7 September the chief business was the election of a new chair of the charitable Trust, as Jane Levi, who has led it so ably and with such distinction in sometimes difficult circumstances and who led the group into its new home at St Catherine’s, had decided to step down following the 2007 Symposium. Carolin Young was elected by unanimous acclamation. It was with regret that the Trustees also accepted the resignations of Sri Owen and Robert Chenciner. Sri’s serious work on behalf of the Trust is noted above; Robert was the Trust’s Hon. Treasurer through the most difficult and lean years.  The very good news was that under Phil Iddison’s fiscal guidance, the Trust has accumulated some reserves, and will be in a position soon to advertise its guidelines and rules for applying for financial help and research grants for Symposium attendees.
            In a second important decision taken at this same meeting, the Trustees were sad to accept the resignation as editor of Richard Hosking, who has worked so hard to produce the Symposium Proceedings for the past five years, at some cost to his personal health and well-being. We are happy that Richard continues to serve as a Trustee. The Trustees are very pleased indeed to announce that Susan Friedland, who has a distinguished professional record as an editor and publisher, has agreed to fill this important role and has, with  enthusiasm, also been elected  as a Trustee. She has already formed an Editorial Committee to establish a set of guidelines that addresses the growing problem of the number of proposals exceeding the presentation time available at the Symposium, in a manner that embraces the Symposium’s longstanding spirit of inclusiveness and creativity.
            The 2008 Symposium is at St Catz on 12-14 September. The subject for the 2008 Symposium is VEGETABLES.
            The 2009 Symposium’s dates are 11-13 September. The subject for 2009 is FOOD AND LANGUAGE.
            In a striking and surprisingly efficient move, the 2010 subject was proposed and accepted. It is CURED, SMOKED AND FERMENTED FOODS. The dates for this symposium will, in an even more revolutionary move, be announced shortly.
            These exceptional steps  are being taken because the Symposium is a unique occasion for the meeting of like-minded spirits as much as it is a forum for a stimulating exchange of ideas, and knowing the schedule and topics so far in advance makes it easier for everyone to make plans to participate. Please do note the dates now, so that you can be at St Catz in 2008, 2009 and 2010.

–Paul Levy and Claudia Roden (in absentia), Co-chairs, 2007 Symposium