Ethical Omnivorism

Eating is an ethical act. When eaters make decisions concerning what to eat, they make choices that can have serious consequences beyond the plate. Food ethics is the interdisciplinary study of how food and agricultural practices impact human, animal, and environmental wellbeing (Kaplan 2012; Thompson 2023). As the field of food ethics makes clear, there are many ways eaters answer the question “what should I eat?” that are driven by deeply held ethical beliefs. Today, entire food movements are driven by thoughtful individuals who want to eat in line with their moral and ethical commitments. This short essay discusses a normatively driven diet called ethical omnivorism, one that embraces the idea that good food is produced by using ecologically healthy and compassionate farming methods. The consumption of meat, eggs, and dairy is typically acceptable if these products are sustainably produced on farms with high animal welfare standards (Noll 2025). It is a diet that bridges the gap between field and plate and places ethical omnivorism into conversation with other ethically driven diets. It also includes a heuristic, or daily practice, that helps eaters approach food choice from a philosophical perspective.As David Kaplan (2012) argues, even everyday acts of eating and cooking are types of ethical conduct. Personal values, as well as cultural and religious commitments, prescribe what we should and should not eat. This reality is reflected in the history of diets guided by ethical commitments, from various religious diets to vegetarianism and veganism (Zwart 2000). Similarly, ethical omnivorism is guided by deeply held ethical commitments, though these are diverse (Milburn and Bobier 2022; Noll 2025; Pollan 2006; Lamey 2007). As the growing literature on this diet reflects, ethical omnivores prioritize multiple concerns, including environmental sustainability, animal welfare, and locally sourcing food (Milburn et al. 2022; Noll 2025; Pollan 2006). Drawing from Noll’s (2025) more detailed analysis, these make up the omnivore’s ethic of “conscientious consumption,” with three sub-commitments including: a) sustainable sourcing (an environmental ethic); b) community-based food (local food as a heuristic); and c) compassionate eating (animal welfare). The diet also includes a heuristic, which is a daily practice component of the diet, bridging field and fork. In particular, many ethical omnivores embrace an “ethic of seeing,” asking eaters to engage in a heuristic where they learn more about how food choices impact human and ecological communities (Noll 2025). As both the heuristic and ethic of conscientious consumption highlight, a key aspect of this diet is understanding which food production systems align with eaters’ values. Rather than focus on a single issue, ethical omnivores balance three ethical considerations. They attempt to meet ethical standards by sourcing food locally, engaging with producers, and reading food labels to find products that align with their needs and values.In addition, the commitment to sourcing foodstuffs locally is linked to ecological eating, as knowing how your food is produced is important for better understanding the environmental impacts of agriculture. Some scholars argue that ethical omnivores’ commitment to regenerative farming standards tacitly ground it in an environmental ethic (Davis 2003; Noll 2025; Pollan 2006). On the surface, the dietary recommendations are quite simple: source your food locally, when possible, and eat environmentally sustainable and ethically raised meats, fish, eggs, and dairy. While environmental ethicists historically ignored agricultural lands as areas of disvalue, farms are increasingly seen as important environments in their own right (Thompson 2010). One of the strengths of the ethical omnivore diet is that it pushes eaters to better understand the value of farming environments, beyond the products they produce. Farms are not only spaces where food is grown, but are also ecosystems where other species live, find nourishment, and pass through. At its core, the ethical omnivore diet is rooted in an environmental ethic that recognizes the need to balance human and ecological needs. In daily practice, this commitment often takes the form of buying locally or organically produced foodstuffs, as these are two strategies employed to meet this tacit environmental ethic (Pollan 2006). As Salant (2023) states, ethical omnivores are committed to eating in line with ecological health. They support farmers who embrace environmentally friendly agricultural methods. Thus, both sustainable sourcing and community-based food practices guide this diet.In addition, this diet embraces an animal welfare ethic. Ethical omnivorism is built on the mandate that people should be allowed to eat meat if certain conditions are met (Sandler 2014). For example, Milburn and Bobier (2022) argue that omnivores typically accept the premises that: a) industrialized plant-based agriculture causes animal suffering; and b) that there are humane methods of raising animals for food. Agricultural production often involves the extirpation and elimination of other species. Field traps, land clearing, pesticides, mechanical harvesting all cause harm to a wide range of animals. Ethical omnivores embrace the view that, paradoxically, allowing for some meat eating could reduce the overall suffering of animals if we embrace ecologically sustainable farming methods (Lamey 2007; Milburn and Bobier 2022). This line of reasoning is often grounded in utilitarian calculations, where supporters argue that animal husbandry causes less harm than growing field crops in monocrop systems.Ethical omnivores are thus critical of industrial animal production but also want to widen the scope of analysis to include plant-based production. An argument typically made to support omnivorism goes as follows:1) Both plant-based and animal industrial agriculture cause harm to sentient animals. 2) As ethical eaters, we have a duty to minimize harm to sentient animals when we produce food. 3) Supporting farms that embrace ecologically healthy practices and high animal welfare standards will reduce these harms. (Noll 2025)These eaters recognize that the way we produce our food matters when determining if a product is ethical or not. In contrast to vegetarian diets, however, ethical omnivorism embraces the idea that animals can be eaten if high animal welfare standards are in place. In addition, ecologically healthy agriculture often depends on animals to provide needed nitrogen to grow food, as these production systems reject the use of petroleum-based inputs to maintain soil fertility (Pollan 2006). Thus, animal agriculture may be necessary for practicing environmentally sound agriculture, albeit this would also include a rejection of industrial agriculture and the use of artificial inputs.With this being said, ethical omnivorism would require current animal husbandry practices to drastically change. Several supporters have vocally condemned animal confinement operations (Salant 2023; Pollan 2006). Conventional animal husbandry practices are often not environmentally sound and do not align with this diet’s commitment to maintaining high animal welfare standards (Rollin 1995; Verbeke and Viaene 2000; Webster 2016). For this reason, advocates for ethical omnivorism recommend sourcing food locally and practicing the heuristic discussed above, as knowing how your food is produced matters. They also embrace arguments that returning to small-scale integrated farming practices are needed to maintain such high standards (Pollan 2006; Noll 2025). This would greatly reduce the numbers of animals raised, thus reducing availability and increasing costs.As meat that meets ethical omnivores’ high ethical standards is much more expensive, there may be downstream impacts to food availability and equity considerations, as well. For example, Pollan’s vision of ethical omnivorism smacks of food elitism, as it emphasizes locally sourced, organic, and pasture-raised animal products and thus tends to favor those with financial resources. Guthman (2007) goes so far as to argue that Pollan’s work is a response to health and environmental injustices of the industrial food system. However, by recommending a specific diet, his work is remarkably unreflective concerning the history of food justice. Guthman’s critique could apply to ethical omnivorism, more generally, as foodstuffs that align with this diet tend to be more expensive and many consumers do not have the time to visit farmers markets. As a way forward, one could argue that, when placed in conversation with other diets, ethical omnivorism could provide the flexibility needed to better align with culturally important eating habits, as meat and other types of foodstuffs are not off the menu. This diet’s power also lies in its heuristic, or daily practice, that prompts eaters to learn about how their food is produced and think more deeply about food related choices from a philosophical perspective. Class-based barriers to exercising food choice should be removed going forward, but more work needs to be done here.Making food choices from a philosophical perspective requires engagement with the ethical, environmental, and cultural dimensions of eating. Ethical omnivorism supports this approach through a mindful relationship with food—one that recognizes the ethical implications of our eating habits. By embracing the ethic of conscientious consumption, this diet encourages eaters to think beyond personal preference and convenience, engaging instead with broader ethical commitments that shape agricultural and food systems. In daily practice, this means making food choices that align with our personal values while recognizing the complexities of food production. It involves asking difficult questions about the origins of our food, the conditions under which it was produced, and the impact our consumption has on the world. It bridges the gap between field and plate and challenges eaters to move beyond dichotomies—such as plant-based versus animal-based diets. By prompting eaters to think about their food choices, the diet invites us to rethink our relationships with food, the land, and the communities that sustain us.