"In recent years, we have witnessed three parallel and intertwined trends: First, food retailand processing firms have embraced private standards, usually with some form of thirdparty certification employed to verify adherence to those standards. Second, firms havealigned themselves increasingly aligned themselves with, as opposed to fighting off,environmental, fair trade, and other NGOs. Third, firms have embraced supply chainmanagement as a strategy for increasing profits and market share. Together, these trendsare part and parcel of the neoliberal blurring of the older liberal distinction between stateand civil society. In this paper I ask what the implications of these changes are from thevantage point of the three major approaches to ethics: consequentalism, virtue theory, andrights theory. What are the consequences of these changes for food safety, for suppliers,for consumers? What virtues (e.g., trust, fairness) are these changes likely to embraceand what vices may accompany them? Whose rights will be furthered or curtailed bythese changes?" (author's abstract)
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