Personal vs Corporate Responsibility

This broadcast will address the question of responsibility: Should it be you and I who feel personally responsible for finding it very difficult to eat a socially and environmentally responsible diet, or, on the other hand, should those who have created our dominant food system be responsible themselves - that is a food system which is incredibly taxing on the planet, on communities around the world and on our health.

In November 2006, Princeton University hosted the conference "Food, Ethics and the Environment", made up of some of the most well-known names in the world of food activism. A number of the speakers were critical of the dominant food system, and author Eric Schlosser raised the topic of personal versus corporate responsibility to address the damage this food system has had and continues to have on our health and the planet.

On the following day of the conference, an executive from McDonald's Corporation presented his company's approach to corporate responsibility, and this broadcast will further explore the issues raised by these two speakers.

Guests

Eric Schlosser, Author, "Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal" (California) - Schlosser started his career as a journalist with the The Atlantic Monthly in Boston, Massachusetts. He quickly gained recognition for his investigative journalism at the magazine earning two awards within two years of joining; he won the National Magazine Award for reporting for this two part series "Reefer Madness" and "Marijuana and the Law", and he won the Sidney Hillman Foundation award for his article, "In the Strawberry Fields". Aside from the Atlantic Monthly, Schlosser's work has appeared in Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, The Nation and The New Yorker

Bob Langert, Vice-President Corporate Social Responsibility, McDonald's Corporation (Oak Brook, IL) - On January 19, Langert, posted the first entry on the company blog "Open for Discussion." Langert wrote, "The purpose of this blog" is "to open our doors to corporate social responsibility (CSR) at McDonald's - to share what we're doing and learn what you think." His second post highlights McDonald's long-standing "partnership with Conservation International."