ABSTRACT
This addition to the present volume is in the broadest sense about both business and food ethics and the role of ethical behaviour in managerial conduct in the hospitality industry, particularly as it bears on the food and beverage function. The range of issues of ethical importance in food production, supply and consumption is a long one. Most such issues pertain to supposedly growing public concern over a not easily disentangled set of issues relating to economic and environmental sustainability, the moral and technical integrity of food production and supply chains, and food quality and its effects on human health. In the study and practice of business ethics, the issues are equally complex, but in recent years have been principally expressed – and quite extensively covered – in debates about the need for organisations to practise ‘corporate social responsibility’ or CSR. An important element of these discussions is the need for organisations to exercise cautious responsibility in the development and maintenance of their supply chains, thereby ensuring that partners in those chains behave in a manner consistent with corporate philosophy. In the food and beverage context, managerial latitude to control the food supply chain faces a number of constraints, some of which are considered here.
