Grub First, then Ethics

Gawen Rudder reports on the recent ethics evening and how your Club might progress the concept of an FMCA Code of ethics.

If the subject is ethics, best we acknowledge the source of the headline quote: the author was Bertolt Brecht, of The Threepenny Opera  fame. The Dixson Room at the Mitchell Library seemed an appropriate venue for a hypo-ethical evening of role reversal and fishy dilemmas. The challenge was to successfully launch the Irish O'Flattery Brothers' southern ocean Omega-rich Pandemonium O'Fish.

Joanna Savill did an excellent imitation of Geoffery Robertson, QC, as ringmaster to six role-reversed experts with, as the script demanded, dubious moral values.

The panel comprised a celebrity chef, a restaurant reviewer, a nutritionist, a manipulative marketer, a PR person and a media mogul, all played with good humour by Sue Bennett (Food & Wine Editor of The Daily Telegraph, who was enthusiastic in her role as the manipulative marketer); Corrie Byrne (CEO of Best Results, who turned his back on his real-life role in retail innovation to become a deal-making journalist); Matthew Evans (former restaurant reviewer and author, who got right into the spirit of things in his fictional role as a celebrity chef, "for $100,000 plus expenses, I'll put my name on anything, even fish fingers"); Darren Simpson (Executive Chef at La Sala, who, despite a rotten cold, was an influential "what I write is what people believe" restaurant reviewer); Geraldine Georgeou (dietitian and media spokeswoman, who charmingly took on the role of a persistent PR hack, asking appropriately, "where's the hook?") and Tony Rasman (Senior Vice President of Fleishman-Hillard PR, who backed into his new persona as a "we need to discuss contracts" nutritionist).

As the hypothetical unravelled, it transpired that the O'Fish was actually an O'Shito fish, of which one of the genders tasted like what Joanna described rather more politely as "crap", and that the Irish brothers' business was in fact a front for a Japanese whaling company.

What then emerged from the evening? Issues of plagiarism, dodgy deals badly done, transparency, educationals more properly described as junkets, assorted freebies, favours called in, questionable monetary matters, bad behaviour, reworked PR releases, and all manner of convenient compromise. The subject of ethics, first raised some years ago at an FMCA function featuring Dr Simon Longstaff of the St James Ethics Centre, generated considerable interest and debate. The bottom line and ultimate definition of ethics came at the conclusion of the evening: "Ethics are like underpants. You can't see them, but you know when they aren't there."

So where from here? Judging by the enthusiastic response to the topic, the FMCA  Committee plans to pursue the concept of a commonsense Code of Ethics for the Food Media Club during the coming year. The challenge, as aired on the evening, will be to formulate a workable Code which applies to the broad range of interests and professions represented in the Food Media Club Australia. Members will be asked to contribute to the creation of a Code which is neither punitive nor overly prescriptive in terms of member behaviour.