Agriculture's Ethical Horizon

Chapter 1: Introduction

• • Scientific truth and myth
• • The Big Questions
• • The University
• • Snow’s Two Cultures and Agriculture

Chapter 2: The conduct of agricultural science

• • A Brief Story of Agriculture
• • Blood sweat and tears era
• • The mechanical era
• • The chemical era
• • The evolving genomic, genetic modification era
• • What research ought to be done?

Chapter 3: When things go wrong

• • An example - The development of herbicides
• • Progress of weed science
• • Challenges
• • The continuing debate

Chapter 4: An introduction to ethics

• • Science and emotion
• • Universal values
• • Ethics in agriculture
• • Contemporary normative ethics
• • Ethics and morality
• • Moral theories relevant to agriculture
• • Ethical egoism
• • Social contract theory
• • Virtue theory
• • Deontological or Kantian ethics
• • Utilitarianism
• • Should ethics be involved in agriculture and agricultural science?
• • Multiple Strategies Utilitarianism

Chapter 5: Moral confidence in agriculture

• • The benefits and costs of modern agriculture
• • Goals for agriculture
• • Social goals for agriculture
• • Environmental goals for agriculture
• • Expanding agriculture’s moral scope
• • The utilitarian standard
• • The relevance of the Western agricultural model
• • Bottom line thinking
• • sustainability
• • Conclusion

Chapter 6: The relevance of ethics to agriculture

• • Agricultures Moral Dilemmas
• • The Environment
• • Concerns About Agriculture
• • Sustainability
• • Pesticides
• • Antibiotics
• • Exploitation of and Cruelty to Migrant labor
• • Loss of biodiversity
• • Animals
• • Biotechnology, genetic engineering, and GMOs
• • CRISPR
• • Mining water
• • The environment
• • Bio energy
• • Concluding Comment

Chapter 7: Ethics in Agriculture and Other Disciplines

• • Surveys
• • The University
• • The Ethical Dimension
• • Medical schools
• • Law schools
• • Veterinary medicine
• • Business schools
• • Agricultural societies
• • Psychology
• • A Few Final Words

Chapter 8: Agricultural sustainability

• • The present agricultural situation: The example of weed management
• • The moral case for sustainability
• • What should be sustained?
• • Why must sustainability be achieved?
• • A concluding comment on sustainable weed science

Chapter 9: Agricultural biotechnology

• • The debate
• • Technological problems
• • Regulation
• • Arguments in favor of agricultural biotechnology
• • Arguments opposed to agricultural biotechnology
• • Feeding the world
• • Harm to human health
• • Harm to the environment
• • Transgenic technology and sustainable agricultural systems
• • The moral arguments
• • Labeling and biotechnology in the US and the EU
• • Affects on family farms
• • Academic-industry relationships
• • Transgenic pharming
• • The precautionary principle

Chapter 10: Alternative/organic agriculture

• • The modern/conventional system
• • Characteristics
• • Farmers and productivity
• • Transition and advantages
• • Ethical problems

Chapter 11: Animals

• • Western thought and the line
• • A person
• • Arguments in support or animal agriculture
• • Arguments against animal agriculture
• • Animal biotechnology
• • In-Vitro meat

Chapter 12: A glimpse ahead

• • Six important issues / problems / matters of concern
• • Agricultural production
• • Soil erosion
• • Desertification.
• • Depletion of water resources
• • Climate change
• • Pollution
• • Loss of farmers
• • Population
• • Dominant scientific myths
• • The myth of infinite benefit
• • The myth that science and scientists are value-free
• • The myth of unfettered research
• • The myth of accountability
• • The myth of authoritativeness
• • The myth of the endless frontier
• • Production and ethics
• • The imperative of responsibility
• • Finding partners
• • Mission statements
• • The role of the university
• • Sustainability as a goal

Chapter 13: Approaching Consensus

• • Agriculture’s Paradigm
• • Approaching Moral Issues
• • A few examples of progress
• • Organic agricultural programs