This lecture addresses the most important ethical issues related to the food system, including the major ethical standards and their relevance for the food system and the pros and cons of using a social welfare function to guide food policies and programs. The ethics associated with policy action and failure to take action is analyzed and socially sensitive trade-offs are discussed. The lecture addresses questions such as: Is the right to freedom from hunger, as practiced in most countries, really a right or merely a privilege and is the fight against hunger and malnutrition a moral imperative or an enlightened self-interest for societies?