David M. Kaplan, associate professor of philosophy, serves as editor of The Philosophy of Food (University of California Press) — also the name of the project he heads at UNT. The book features 16 essays tackling all aspects of food, from sustainability to table manners.
Kaplan started working on food issues in the late 1990s when genetically modified foods were in the news. He wanted to dig deeper about why he opposed such foods.
“The more I tried to come up with good, non-scientific reasons to oppose them, the deeper I got into the philosophy of food,” he says. “More than 10 years later, I’m still trying to figure it out.”