An appetite for ethics

For students concerned with animal welfare, some of Duke’s most loved foods may taste a little bit sweeter in coming years. Bon Appetit Management Company, which manages vendors like the Marketplace and the Great Hall, has recently committed to purchasing 25 percent of its meat and eggs from producers that treat their animals humanely and, beginning 2015, will no longer purchase eggs laid by chickens confined to battery cages or pork raised in gestation crates. The pledge by Bon Appetit promises to yield an exciting improvement in both the quality and ethicality of food on campus and reflects the company’s laudable and long-held commitment to sustainability and ethical food production.

With the threat of greenwashing and other insincere attempts to appear ethical always looming, it remains important to determine whether companies that claim to support humanely raised food actually do so in practice. Bon Appetit appears to be committed to ensuring that its pledge translates into action. Independent animal welfare groups and the Humane Society of the United States will aid Bon Appetit in selecting humane suppliers.

Crucially, Bon Appetit has not ignored sustainability concerns that are independent of animal welfare. Sustainability forms a core part of Bon Appetit’s mission, and the company has a long history of promoting local and sustainable agriculture. Both the Marketplace and the Great Hall serve food from local farms, including the Duke Campus Farm.

Bon Appetit also boasts a history of advocating on behalf of farmworkers. In 2009, Bon Appetit signed an agreement with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers—an advocacy group for immigrant laborers in Florida—that outlined a strict code of conduct for tomato growers who sell to the company. The agreement, which emphasizes fair wages and worker’s empowerment, emerged amid a slew of reports detailing abuses suffered by tomato harvesters in southern Florida. In some of the worst cases, workers endured physical violence and prolonged enslavement at the hands of their employers. Bon Appetit’s dedication to supporting human and labor rights sets it apart from other food providers that champion animal welfare. Chipotle has banned the use of gestation crates in the production of its pork, but it refuses to sign an agreement with the CIW and continues to buy from tomato growers that maintain some of the worst labor standards in the country.

Because suppliers often price humanely raised meat at a premium, Bon Appetit may have to pay more for ethical food. Despite the possibility of raised prices in campus eateries, Bon Appetit should pay more for humane products so that these producers can compete with factory farms. In the event that prices increase, we hope that the University will absorb the price hikes so that students do not have to, as higher prices threaten to push students to eateries that do not offer ethically produced items.

Given Bon Appetit’s substantive commitment to not only animal welfare but also environmental sustainability and workers’ rights, we encourage students to prioritize the Marketplace and the Great Hall over other eateries when choosing where to eat. As Duke students, we enjoy the unique privilege of having access to relatively inexpensive, humanely raised and sustainable food, and we should consider voting with our food points to ensure that ethical food production receives continued support.