Content (linked to respective subjects)
Compiled by EHN-March 2011
Content
(linked to respective subjects)
Ethics and Professional Ethics
Ethics and Morality: the Diference
Philosophy and Ethics
Ethics and Morality
Value & Ethics of Science
Agricultural Ethics
Farm Structure
Animal Ethics
Food Safety
Environmental Impact
International Trade
Food Security
Agricultural Biotecnology
The Ethics of Sustainable Agricultural Intensifcation
Ethics and Professional
Ethics
What is the diferent between ETHIC and ETHICS?:
An ethic means a principle , while Ethics is the study
of moral philosophy.
What is ETHICS?
Ethics is a branch of philosophy which seeks to
address questions about morality; that is, about
concepts such as good and bad, right and wrong,
justice, and virtue.
How do we defne PERSONAL ETHICS and
PROFESSIONAL ETHICS?
personal ethics is subjective; professional ethics is
objective
Ethics and Morality: the
Diference
The terms ethics and morality are often used
interchangeably - indeed, they usually can
mean the same thing, and in casual
conversation there isn't a problem with
switching between one and the other.
However, there is a distinction between them
in philosophy!
Ethics and Morality:
Etymology
Morality and ethics have same roots, mores
which means manner and customs from the
Latin and etos which means custom and
habits from the Greek.
Robert Louden, Morality and Moral Theory
Ethics and Morality:
What are
they?
Strictly speaking, morality is used to refer to
what we would call moral standards and
moral conduct while ethics is used to refer to
the formal study of those standards and
conduct. For this reason, the study of ethics
is also often called "moral philosophy."
Philosophy and Ethics
Professional ethics is a branch of the area of
study called ethics, which is itself one of the
traditional areas of philosophy.
review the defnitions of philosophy and ethics:
philosophy (df.): the area of inquiry that
attempts to discover truths involving
fundamental concepts, such as the concepts of
God, knowledge, truth, reality, the mind and
consciousness, free will, right and wrong. [Not
all philosophers would agree with this defnition
of philosophy!]
Philosophy and Ethics
Philosophy is an area of inquiry (df.): an
attempt to discover truths about the world
(research)
Philosophy” derives from the Greek words for
love (philo) and wisdom (sophia). For the
ancient Greeks, “philosophy” was love of
wisdom. But while this might give us the
beginning of an idea of what philosophers do
today, we need to get more specifc to really
understand what modern philosophy is.
Ethics and Morality
Morality: frst-order set of beliefs and
practices about how to live a good life. The
discipline dealing with what is good or bad.
Ethics: a second-order, conscious refection
on the adequacy of our moral beliefs. The
discipline dealing with what is good or bad.
Morality
The quality of being in accord with standards
of right or good conduct.
A system of ideas of right and wrong conduct:
religious morality; Christian morality.
Virtuous conduct.
A rule or lesson in moral conduct.
Philosophy and Ethics
Many philosophers (though not all) consider
ethics to be one of the four main branches of
philosophy, the other three being logic,
metaphysics and epistemology.
ethics (df.): the area of philosophy that
attempts to answer questions involving
concepts such as right/wrong, good/bad,
moral/immoral, etc.
Three Areas of Ethics
Ethics itself is divided into three areas:
normative ethics
meta-ethics
applied ethics
Normative Ethics
Normative ethics (df.): the area of ethics that
asks general questions about the morality of
behavior; it attempts to provide general moral
norms of behavior.
normative (df): a normative statement, or
question, or theory, concerns how things should be,
how they ought to be, rather than how they actually
are.
the opposite of “normative” is: descriptive (df.): a
descriptive statement, or question, or theory,
concerns how things actually are, not how they
ought to be.]
Normative Ethics
Normative Ethics
So normative ethics is the branch of ethics
that tries to answer general questions about
how we should behave, how we ought to act.
In other words, it attempts to discover general
rules or principles of moral behavior. In this area
of ethics, you’ll fnd claims like the following:
If doing x will beneft someone without harming anyone
else, then it is morally permissible for you to do x.
If doing x treats someone as a means to an end without
respecting her as a person, then it is immoral for you
to do x.
Meta Ethics
meta-ethics (df.): the area of ethics that tries to
answer questions about the nature of morality
itself. It does not ask or make judgments about what
types of action are moral and immoral; rather, it asks
questions like:
does morality depend on what we believe about it, or is it
independent of our beliefs?
does morality depend on what God commands?
are moral judgments (statements attributing morality or
immorality to a given act, e.g. “Murder is immoral”; “Charity
is morally good”) capable of being true or false? or are they
simply expressions of emotion? or something else?
how can we justify moral claims? how should we justify them?
Applied Ethics
applied ethics (df.): the area of ethics that
asks relatively concrete questions about the
morality of specifc actions and policies.
There are many applied ethics, including
Agricultural Ethics that we will discuss later
Moral Categories
immoral (df.): not permitted by morality;
morally bad; in performing the action, you
are doing something morally wrong;
examples of actions that are generally
considered to be immoral are: rape,
torturing someone simply because you enjoy
causing him pain, and killing someone
simply because you fnd him or her annoying
(or for some other relatively trivial reason).
Moral Categories
morally permissible (df.): permitted by
morality; in performing the action, you are
not doing anything immoral.
There are three sub-categories of morally
permissible action:
obligatory,
morally neutral, and
supererogatory:
Moral Categories
obligatory (df.): required by morality; if you
don’t do it, then you’ve done something
immoral (for example, saving the life of a
baby who is drowning in two feet of water,
when doing so would pose no risk to your
own life).
Moral Categories
morally neutral (df.): neither morally good
nor morally bad; no moral value whatsoever
(for example, tossing a piece of chalk up in
the air and then catching it... doing so has no
consequences for anyone else and only trivial
consequences for yourself; it violates no one’s
rights and in fact has nothing to do with
anyone else at all).
Moral Categories
supererogatory (df.): going above and
beyond what morality requires; you are not
obligated to do it, so in failing to do it, you
would not be immoral; but you’ve done
something morally good if you do it (for
example, saving the life of a stranger who is
drowning 100 m from shore, in choppy water,
when you have no training as a lifeguard and
doing so risks your own life).
Value of Science
Science is the quintessence of knowledge of
human cognition of the objective world.
Technology is being and developing mode
created by mankind.
Science and technology is the driving
force and foundation of modern
civilization.
Value of Science
Contemporary scientifc revolution has
triggered of technological revolution and
industrial revolution.
the theory of relativity, quantum and
cybernetics fueled the development of
nuclear , semi-conductor, laser physics
and so on, which gave birth to, the
development of nuclear energy, industrial
automation, IC and IT technology and the
relevant industrial revolution.
Value of Science
Modern science and technology has
brought about improvt agriculture,
health care and quality of life.
IT, life sciences and biotechnology, etc
have brought human into an era of
global and knowledge-based economy.
Modern science and technology has
opened a new era of harmonious and
sustainable development of human
with nature.
Modern science and technology is still
brewing new breakthroughs, which will
bring about revolutionary changes to the
future production mode, life style, social
structure, etc. meanwhile inevitably
giving rise to more ethical and moral
issues.
IT will continue its developing towards
broadband, wireless, intelligence and
grid working, and bring about profound
impact on the daily life, production
mode, commercial and social
management, and further boost
globalization of information, capital,
human resources, production and
operation.
—— However, problems such as networking
fraud, hacker attack, information leakage,
data falsifcation, gambling and illegal
dissemination of pornography , etc also
come along. Moreover, due to imbalance of
information acquisition and application
among diferent countries, regions and
individuals, new disparity between rich and
poor — digital gap, will occur.
Further development of life sciences
and biotechnology will bring about
new revolutionary changes to
agriculture and healthcare.
Meanwhile, the advancement and
extensive application of industrial
and eco-environmental biotechnology
will lead to the advent of Bioeconomy era .—— However, ethical problems such as
individual life code disclosure, dificulty in
defnition of individual’s social attribution, etc
will also rise. Other problems include
factitious impact on ecological balance and
safety, new threat to human genetic and
development health, etc.
The Achievements of
nanotechnology may further change
the industries of information,
electronics, manufacture, chemical
process, pharmaceuticals, materials
and environmental protection etc.
—— However, once nanotechnology is extensively
applied in various felds, numerous challenges in
aspects such as human health, social ethics,
ecological environment, etc may appear. Research
already show, that some nano powder have
special toxicity , nano particles and nano carbon
tube may trigger cancer and could penetrate
animal’s blood-brain barrier, and the waste
disposal of nano materials may bring us to face
new problems. If one day nanotechnology is used
to make danger weapons, man has yet to fnd
ways and means to protect ourselves.
Progress of cognitive science will possibly
trigger
revolutionary
changes
for
computer, communication, brain/nervous
science, and even learning and education,
providing more efective means for the
well-being and development of human
brain and neural system, and the
prevention and cure of mental diseases.
—— However, improper use of cognitive
science may lead to control of man’s
behavior, sensibility and thought such
as psychological inducement, cognition
inducement, etc and cause serious
ethical
problems
such
as
illegal
infringement on human rights such as
privacy and
self-determination of
behavior, etc.
Combination of information
technology and life sciences with
biotechnology, nanotechnology,
cognitive science and
mathematics / system science
will fnd new, efective and
simple mathematic tools and
methods to understand matters,
life and human cognizing
process, and possibly trigger of
new scientifc and technological
revolution.
—— However, this may also bring about new
knowledge gap and imbalance of development.
Advanced and extensive application of
space technology (GIS,GPS,RS) has
expanded human’s visions of cognition,
promoted developing the earth,
resource and environmental science,
provided the technological support for
agriculture, monitoring the ecoenvironmentals, forecasting climate
change and natural disaster, and
creation of a digital earth.
—— but under modern space supervision, it’s
dificult to keep individual privacy and
confdentials of commercial information, so
countries possessing space supervision
technologies inevitably have information
advantages, thus causing new ethical problems
such as dissymmetry of information, unfair of
development, etc.
As fortune created by mankind jointly, science
and technology has the characteristics of
accumulation, sharable and re-creation. It
should beneft all mankind.
Meanwhile, we should clear realize that science
and technology is also a double-edged sword,
once misused, it may endanger natural
ecosystem, human rights, life in the earth, and
harmonious and sustainable evolution between
human society and nature, thus causing further
unfair, insecurity, disharmony, no
sustainablility, and even man-made disasters.
Scientifc ethics that mankind
should all abide
Scientists and engineers should not only have the interest
and passion for creation, but also shoulder the social
responsibility.
In S&T innovation, we should respect life (including that of
mankind and other life).
In S&T innovation, we should respect the human rights
fairly (including that among not just the contemporaries
but also the diferent generations).
In S&T innovation, we should respect dignity of human
(including those of diferent ethnic groups, genders, ages
and with diferent beliefs).
In S&T innovation, we should respect nature, protect ecosystems and environment, and realize harmonious
coexistence and sustainable evolution between man and
nature.
Commonality between ancient oriental
philosophy
and
2500modern
years ago,scientifc
the Chineseethics
philosopher
Confucius (551 BC — 479 BC) put forward
the following ethical norms:
•treasure life
•treat people equally
•respect each other
•encourage creation
•be faithful and trustable
Ancient
oriental
philosophy
attaches
importance
to the unity of heaven and man,
harmonious
Confucius (551 BC － 479 BC) said, “Without
coexistence
man of
and
nature.
recognizingbetween
the ordinances
Heaven,
it is
impossible to be a superior man” (The
Analects· Yao Yue) － in which “ordinances
of Heaven” means the rule of nature.
Lao Tzu (around 571 BC －
471 BC) once
said, “Tao models itself after the nature”
(The Classic of the Way and virtue),
highlighting the necessity of abiding by the
rule of nature.
Ancient
oriental
philosophy
attaches
importance
to the unity of heaven and man,
harmonious
Zhuang Tzubetween
(around 369
BC and
－ nature.
286 BC)
coexistence
man
once said, “There is nothing superior; there
is nothing inferior” (Zhuang Tzu · Discussion
on Making All Things Equal) － requesting to
treat all things in the universe equally.
Mencius (around 372 BC －
289 BC)
asserted “loving people and treasuring
things”(Mencius·Doctrine
of Extending
Afection), treating people kindly and loving
the nature.
It is not scientifc and technological development
itself but just improper use that accounts for some
ethical problems arising along with scientifc and
technological development. Man should by no
means give up or restrict scientifc and
technological development in the excuse of
ethnics.
——Exploring the unknown world, innovating production
mode and lifestyle and preserving the eco-environment are
everlasting drive for scientifc and technology.
——Science and technology is the inexhaustible source
and driving force for progress of human civilization.
——It is the common social responsibility for scientists and
engineers to develop science and technology to promote the
welfare of human beings.
——The combination of scientifc spirit and humanistic
spirit will inevitably help to establish new ethical norms
We are convinced that so long as
Scientists, Engineers and other peoples
of all countries work hand in hand to
face common challenges, enhance
exchange and adequately cooperate
each other, we will be able to create a
more promising future for mankind!
Ethics is about choices, and agricultural ethics
is about choices for people engaged in agriculture
either directly as farmers, or indirectly as
government regulators, extension agents,
researchers, CEOs, industrial workers, lawmakers,
technology developers, consumers, or protestors.
Role of Ethics in
Agriculture
Ethics is a systematic and critical analysis of
morality, of the moral factors that guide human
conduct in a particular society or practice.
As agriculture represent an interaction
between humans and the aquatic ecosystem,
agriculture ethics deals with the values,
rules, duties and virtues of relevance to both
human and ecosystem well-being, providing a
critical normative analysis of the moral issues
at stake in that sector of human activities.
Agric. Ethics
Agriculture has a long history. Starting
approximately 12,000 years ago, the
domestication of plants and animals began
independently in several diferent places,
including centers in West Asia, East Asia, Central
America, and South America.
Domestication also may have occurred in other
locations, although convincing archeological
evidence has not been found.
In the domestication process, humans manipulated
animals, plants, and the environment in various
ways to increase the availability of the desirable
species and desired traits of these species
Agric. Ethics
It is less widely known that religious, political, and
philosophical refection on agriculture and the
environment also has a long history
The fundamental value of agriculture was
highlighted by Enlightenment thinkers from John
Locke to Thomas Jeferson, who underscored the
political, economic, and philosophical importance of
“tillers of the soil”
In the late twentieth century, systematic thinking
about the values and norms associated with the food
system—farming, resource management, food
processing, distribution, trade, and consumption—
came to be referred to as agricultural ethics.
Agric. Ethics
Agricultural ethics incorporates elements of
philosophical ethical analysis with concerns
about particular issue areas that arise in
connection with the food system.
Many issues associated with the food system
arise from actions that are justifable from the
perspective of one ethical theory but clearly
wrong from the perspective of another
This is why they are referred to as issues: situations in
which some people’s positions or arguments about what
constitutes the right or wrong thing(s) to do are at
variance with, and in confict with, other people’s
arguments.
focus of agricultural ethics as
issues in the food system
farm structure,
animal ethics,
food safety,
environmental impacts,
international trade,
food security,
agricultural biotechnology,
research ethics,
public trust in science,
the process of institutionalizing agricultural
ethics.
FARM STRUCTURE
Farm structure refers to the general social and
economic features of agriculture in a given
society.
It includes elements such as the average size of
farms, relative market shares of diferent-sized
farms, numbers of people employed in farming,
and whether or not farms are owner-operated.
There are many causes of structural change.
Improved farm technology allowed farm size to
grow while improving eficiency and productivity.
Better transportation allowed access to markets
far from the farm gate.
ANIMAL ETHICS
The use of animals in agriculture raises many
ethical issues. A few of the questions raised by
the practice of producing animals for food are
the following:
how long will the Earth’s natural resources be
able to sustain an industrial agricultural system
devoted to high-volume, low-cost, monoculture
production of animal feedstufs?
To what extent will animal producers pay for
environmental externalities such as soil erosion
and loss of biodiversity in rangeland?
ANIMAL ETHICS
Answers to these questions will depend, in
large part, on one’s views about the moral
status of animals and humans’ responsibilities.
For example, we may do whatever we please to
animals; animals have value only as means to
human ends, either because animals are not
sentient (it is believed) or because they lack
consciousness.
Ethical issues in animal production arise only in
contexts such as resource use or environmental
impacts.
ANIMAL ETHICS
Animals can be harmed just as people can,
and they can be benefted as well.
Utilitarian ethics demands that we attempt to
achieve a balance of humans’ and animals’
benefts and harms.
Accordingly, genetically engineering “happy”
farm animals may be ethically required.
FOOD SAFETY
Food safety is an ethical issue in part because,
in the modern food production-transportationprocessingwholesaling-retailing chain, foods
can be exposed to chemicals or microbial
pathogens, or simply can be mishandled.
In addition, the food system is not transparent;
that is, consumers on their own may not know
or be able to tell whether the foods they
purchase and eat will put them at risk for
sickness or disease or even allergic reactions.
FOOD SAFETY
The complexity and lack of transparency of the
production system leads to the need for
agencies such as public health departments, to
play an important role in ensuring food safety.
On this view, governments have an ethical
responsibility to ensure that rights are not
violated and that food is therefore safe.
But, determining food safety is not simple:
“safe” implies a value judgment that potential
hazards have been adequately analyzed and
that any remaining risks are “acceptable”
FOOD SAFETY
Some people have called for implementation of a
“precautionary approach” in food safety assessments
(as well as in environmental risk assessments),
which would place stricter demands on regulators.
The precautionary approach would require that risk
analyses be exhaustive; products being evaluated
would be deemed “safe” only if it could be
determined that there are no risks associated with
the use or consumption of the product.
Issues pertaining to the potential negative impacts of
certifed “safe” foods on certain groups (e.g.,
children or highly allergic individuals) also have
been raised.
ENVIRONMENTAL
IMPACTS
Together with managed forests, crop
agriculture and animal production dominate
human-managed ecosystems on both a
national and global scale. Along with that
domination come the tremendous
environmental impacts that agriculture has
had and continues to have.
These environmental impacts fall into three
general areas of ethical concern.
three general areas of
ethical concern in
environment.
1. Agricultural production practices can have toxic
efects through organic wastes and chemical
pollution, which can afect nontarget organisms,
leave chemical residues on food, and expose
farm workers and other human beings to harm.
2. Agricultural use of soil, water, and genetic
resources can be wasteful.
3. Agriculture has a range of efects on wild
organisms and natural ecosystems that goes
beyond the direct efects of exposure to
chemical toxins
e.g: do transgenic crops have unwanted
environmental impacts ?
ENVIRONMENTAL
IMPACTS
Although most people would agree that these
questions raise ethical concerns, dificult philosophical
issues arise in attempting to articulate a response.
Questions of acceptable risk, and norms for weighing
the degree and distribution of risks against benefts,
are central in each issue.
As is the case with food safety, tensions arise between
utilitarian- and rights-oriented approaches to risk.
In addition, wasteful practices and efects on wild
areas might be understood as ethically signifcant by
virtue of their efects on the rights or welfare of future
generations.
ENVIRONMENTAL
IMPACTS
Alternatively, some people believe that humans
have obligations of stewardship and respect for
nature that go beyond any use human beings
will ever make of natural resources.
Debates over the environmental impact of
transgenic crops have raised anew the question
of just what is an unwanted environmental
impact (UNFAO 2001). Whether transgenic
crops might provide environmental benefts over
traditional cultivars also is relevant here.
INTERNATIONAL
TRADE
There long have been questions about the fairness
of the conditions of international trade, especially
between richer and poorer nations (countries)
Most current ethical questions focus on the
institutional arrangement under which global trade
now is conducted—the World Trade Organization
(WTO).
Membership in the WTO implies that a nation agrees
to abide by WTO rules concerning labor and
production practices, environmental regulations,
upholding of patent protections, and the adjudication
of trade disputes.
INTERNATIONAL
TRADE
The WTO negotiations, rules, and sanctions
clearly have ethical overtones. The existence
of the WTO itself also has been subject to
challenges: certain lesser-developed
countries (LDCs) see the organization as a
tool for developed country’s corporations to
gain/maintain control over their internal
political and economic arrangements.
FOOD SECURITY
Food security is an umbrella term that covers a
wide variety of issues.
At its most basic level, food security notes that
having enough food is a basic need for all human
beings, and that threats to the food that people
need to survive are among the most basic problems
human beings have faced since antiquity.
The phenomenon of hunger continues to be an
important topic for agricultural ethics, as well. For
example, what moral obligations do people who are
relatively well-of have to those who are less wellof?
AGRICULTURAL
BIOTECHNOLOGY
The development of recombinant DNA
techniques for transforming agricultural plants
and animals, as well as for food processing and
animal drugs, has been the focus of controversy
for more than 25 years
Agricultural biotechnology is debated in terms
of food safety and consumer consent, the
broader environmental efects of its use in crop
and livestock production, its impact on the
structure of agriculture, and its potential to
address problems of hunger on a global basis
AGRICULTURAL
BIOTECHNOLOGY
Each of these issues might be raised with
respect to many technologies that afect
yields or production practices in the food
system.
RESEARCH ETHICS
Within many domains of science, research
ethics has focused
primarily on human subjects and informed
consent, and
secondarily on the use of animals as research
subjects.
Whereas the frst concern has not afected
agricultural researchers, the second one has.
RESEARCH ETHICS
Research ethics is coming to be seen in terms of
the broader steering of and control over the
research agenda and the proper role of selfinterested actors (such as corporations) in
supporting public-sector scientifc research.
In agricultural research, these ethical issues
concern the appropriate way that food consumers,
citizens, and other food system outsiders should
have their values refected in the development of
agricultural production practices, especially as
these practices are afected by new technology.
TRUST IN SCIENCE
Agricultural science is a communal process
devoted to the discovery of knowledge and to
open and honest communication of
knowledge.
Its success, therefore, rests on two diferent
kinds of values.
TRUST IN SCIENCE
Epistemological values are values by which
scientists determine which knowledge claims are
better than others.
The values include clarity, objectivity, capacity to
explain a range of observations, and ability to
generate accurate predictions.
Epistemological values in science also include
fecundity, or the ability to generate useful new
hypotheses; simplicity, or the ability to explain
observations with the fewest number of additional
assumptions or qualifcations; and elegance, or
scientifc precision.
TRUST IN SCIENCE
Personal values, including honesty and responsibility,
are a second kind of values—those that allow scientists
to trust the knowledge claims of their peers.
If scientists are dishonest, untruthful, fraudulent, or excessively
self-interested, the free fow of accurate information essential
to science will be thwarted.
If a scientist plagiarizes the work of others or uses fabricated
data, that scientist's work will become shrouded in suspicion
and otherwise reliable data will not be trusted.
If scientists exploit those who work under them or discriminate
because of gender, race, class, or age, then the mechanisms of
trust and collegiality that underlie science, and provide science
with its a priori ethical justifability, will be eroded
INSTITUTIONALIZING
AGRICULTURAL ETHICS?
Ethical concerns have always been important
in agriculture.
However, that ethics has not always been
given an explicit place in the structure of
organizations dedicated to agricultural
leadership, decision making, education, and
research.
INSTITUTIONALIZING
AGRICULTURAL ETHICS?
The most direct strategy for institutionalizing ethics
is for everyone in the food system to begin to
include some consideration of ethics in the actions,
decisions, and policies they create or support.
This strategy means that farmers, scientists,
research administrators, regulators, and decision
makers at the highest levels routinely would refect
on the ethical rightness or wrongness of their own
actions and decisions, as well as those of others;
engage in debate as appropriate; and, ultimately,
try to act ethically.
Agricultural
intensifcation
Agricultural intensifcation can be technically
defned as an increase in agricultural production
per unit of inputs (which may be labour, land, time,
fertilizer, seed, feed or cash).
For practical purposes, intensifcation occurs when
there is an increase in the total volume of agricultural
production that results from a higher productivity of
inputs, or agricultural production is maintained while
certain inputs are decreased (such as by more
efective delivery of smaller amounts of fertilizer,
better targeting of plant or animal protection, and
mixed or relay cropping on smaller felds).
An ethics framework
The word “ethics” refers to principles or standards
that defne behaviour, action or rules for action that
is considered to be right, good and proper.
A framework for organizing the enormous variety of
ethical standards that have served in this role
throughout human history can be developed from a
simple schema of human action.
Individuals, associations or the designated agents
of organizations can each be characterized as
actors (see fgure of next slide),
ELEMENTS OF HUMAN ACTION
An ethics framework
Actors considering or initiating action do so
under three kinds of constraints that determine
which action or behaviour is possible
constraints determine the physical universe of
possibility limits of possible actions represent
technology.
law and policy limit the universe of possible
behaviour and action that an actor will consider.
individuals and associations limit the universe
of possible alternatives for action.
When is intensifcation
ethically good?
Utilitarian ethics
Agricultural intensifcation is a process that
occurs when individual human beings,
communities or organizations take actions of
one sort or another.
Rights-based ethics
A rightsbased approach to intensifcation is
more concerned as to whether the actions that
result in higher food production are consistent
with these rights and duties than in their
eventual efect on human welfare.
When is intensifcation
ethically good?
Utilitarianism and rights-based ethics
The basic tension between utilitarian
consequentialism, on the one hand, and
rightsbased ethics, on the other, underlies many
issues associated with agricultural intensifcation.
Researchers have used the germplasm in breeding
programmes to develop higher-yielding varieties as well
as searching for other valuable genetic traits.
From a utilitarian viewpoint, the increased yields of new
varieties more than justifed the collection of
germplasm, and researchers saw no ethical issue in
using seeds they had collected this way. However,
critics asserted that researchers had failed to show
proper respect for the rights of indigenous farmers
whose forebears had saved seed for centuries.
Content
(linked to respective subjects)
Ethics and Professional Ethics
Ethics and Morality: the Diference
Philosophy and Ethics
Ethics and Morality
Value & Ethics of Science
Agricultural Ethics
Farm Structure
Animal Ethics
Food Safety
Environmental Impact
International Trade
Food Security
Agricultural Biotecnology
The Ethics of Sustainable Agricultural Intensifcation
Ethics and Professional
Ethics
What is the diferent between ETHIC and ETHICS?:
An ethic means a principle , while Ethics is the study
of moral philosophy.
What is ETHICS?
Ethics is a branch of philosophy which seeks to
address questions about morality; that is, about
concepts such as good and bad, right and wrong,
justice, and virtue.
How do we defne PERSONAL ETHICS and
PROFESSIONAL ETHICS?
personal ethics is subjective; professional ethics is
objective
Ethics and Morality: the
Diference
The terms ethics and morality are often used
interchangeably - indeed, they usually can
mean the same thing, and in casual
conversation there isn't a problem with
switching between one and the other.
However, there is a distinction between them
in philosophy!
Ethics and Morality:
Etymology
Morality and ethics have same roots, mores
which means manner and customs from the
Latin and etos which means custom and
habits from the Greek.
Robert Louden, Morality and Moral Theory
Ethics and Morality:
What are
they?
Strictly speaking, morality is used to refer to
what we would call moral standards and
moral conduct while ethics is used to refer to
the formal study of those standards and
conduct. For this reason, the study of ethics
is also often called "moral philosophy."
Philosophy and Ethics
Professional ethics is a branch of the area of
study called ethics, which is itself one of the
traditional areas of philosophy.
review the defnitions of philosophy and ethics:
philosophy (df.): the area of inquiry that
attempts to discover truths involving
fundamental concepts, such as the concepts of
God, knowledge, truth, reality, the mind and
consciousness, free will, right and wrong. [Not
all philosophers would agree with this defnition
of philosophy!]
Philosophy and Ethics
Philosophy is an area of inquiry (df.): an
attempt to discover truths about the world
(research)
Philosophy” derives from the Greek words for
love (philo) and wisdom (sophia). For the
ancient Greeks, “philosophy” was love of
wisdom. But while this might give us the
beginning of an idea of what philosophers do
today, we need to get more specifc to really
understand what modern philosophy is.
Ethics and Morality
Morality: frst-order set of beliefs and
practices about how to live a good life. The
discipline dealing with what is good or bad.
Ethics: a second-order, conscious refection
on the adequacy of our moral beliefs. The
discipline dealing with what is good or bad.
Morality
The quality of being in accord with standards
of right or good conduct.
A system of ideas of right and wrong conduct:
religious morality; Christian morality.
Virtuous conduct.
A rule or lesson in moral conduct.
Philosophy and Ethics
Many philosophers (though not all) consider
ethics to be one of the four main branches of
philosophy, the other three being logic,
metaphysics and epistemology.
ethics (df.): the area of philosophy that
attempts to answer questions involving
concepts such as right/wrong, good/bad,
moral/immoral, etc.
Three Areas of Ethics
Ethics itself is divided into three areas:
normative ethics
meta-ethics
applied ethics
Normative Ethics
Normative ethics (df.): the area of ethics that
asks general questions about the morality of
behavior; it attempts to provide general moral
norms of behavior.
normative (df): a normative statement, or
question, or theory, concerns how things should be,
how they ought to be, rather than how they actually
are.
the opposite of “normative” is: descriptive (df.): a
descriptive statement, or question, or theory,
concerns how things actually are, not how they
ought to be.]
Normative Ethics
Normative Ethics
So normative ethics is the branch of ethics
that tries to answer general questions about
how we should behave, how we ought to act.
In other words, it attempts to discover general
rules or principles of moral behavior. In this area
of ethics, you’ll fnd claims like the following:
If doing x will beneft someone without harming anyone
else, then it is morally permissible for you to do x.
If doing x treats someone as a means to an end without
respecting her as a person, then it is immoral for you
to do x.
Meta Ethics
meta-ethics (df.): the area of ethics that tries to
answer questions about the nature of morality
itself. It does not ask or make judgments about what
types of action are moral and immoral; rather, it asks
questions like:
does morality depend on what we believe about it, or is it
independent of our beliefs?
does morality depend on what God commands?
are moral judgments (statements attributing morality or
immorality to a given act, e.g. “Murder is immoral”; “Charity
is morally good”) capable of being true or false? or are they
simply expressions of emotion? or something else?
how can we justify moral claims? how should we justify them?
Applied Ethics
applied ethics (df.): the area of ethics that
asks relatively concrete questions about the
morality of specifc actions and policies.
There are many applied ethics, including
Agricultural Ethics that we will discuss later
Moral Categories
immoral (df.): not permitted by morality;
morally bad; in performing the action, you
are doing something morally wrong;
examples of actions that are generally
considered to be immoral are: rape,
torturing someone simply because you enjoy
causing him pain, and killing someone
simply because you fnd him or her annoying
(or for some other relatively trivial reason).
Moral Categories
morally permissible (df.): permitted by
morality; in performing the action, you are
not doing anything immoral.
There are three sub-categories of morally
permissible action:
obligatory,
morally neutral, and
supererogatory:
Moral Categories
obligatory (df.): required by morality; if you
don’t do it, then you’ve done something
immoral (for example, saving the life of a
baby who is drowning in two feet of water,
when doing so would pose no risk to your
own life).
Moral Categories
morally neutral (df.): neither morally good
nor morally bad; no moral value whatsoever
(for example, tossing a piece of chalk up in
the air and then catching it... doing so has no
consequences for anyone else and only trivial
consequences for yourself; it violates no one’s
rights and in fact has nothing to do with
anyone else at all).
Moral Categories
supererogatory (df.): going above and
beyond what morality requires; you are not
obligated to do it, so in failing to do it, you
would not be immoral; but you’ve done
something morally good if you do it (for
example, saving the life of a stranger who is
drowning 100 m from shore, in choppy water,
when you have no training as a lifeguard and
doing so risks your own life).
Value of Science
Science is the quintessence of knowledge of
human cognition of the objective world.
Technology is being and developing mode
created by mankind.
Science and technology is the driving
force and foundation of modern
civilization.
Value of Science
Contemporary scientifc revolution has
triggered of technological revolution and
industrial revolution.
the theory of relativity, quantum and
cybernetics fueled the development of
nuclear , semi-conductor, laser physics
and so on, which gave birth to, the
development of nuclear energy, industrial
automation, IC and IT technology and the
relevant industrial revolution.
Value of Science
Modern science and technology has
brought about improvt agriculture,
health care and quality of life.
IT, life sciences and biotechnology, etc
have brought human into an era of
global and knowledge-based economy.
Modern science and technology has
opened a new era of harmonious and
sustainable development of human
with nature.
Modern science and technology is still
brewing new breakthroughs, which will
bring about revolutionary changes to the
future production mode, life style, social
structure, etc. meanwhile inevitably
giving rise to more ethical and moral
issues.
IT will continue its developing towards
broadband, wireless, intelligence and
grid working, and bring about profound
impact on the daily life, production
mode, commercial and social
management, and further boost
globalization of information, capital,
human resources, production and
operation.
—— However, problems such as networking
fraud, hacker attack, information leakage,
data falsifcation, gambling and illegal
dissemination of pornography , etc also
come along. Moreover, due to imbalance of
information acquisition and application
among diferent countries, regions and
individuals, new disparity between rich and
poor — digital gap, will occur.
Further development of life sciences
and biotechnology will bring about
new revolutionary changes to
agriculture and healthcare.
Meanwhile, the advancement and
extensive application of industrial
and eco-environmental biotechnology
will lead to the advent of Bioeconomy era .—— However, ethical problems such as
individual life code disclosure, dificulty in
defnition of individual’s social attribution, etc
will also rise. Other problems include
factitious impact on ecological balance and
safety, new threat to human genetic and
development health, etc.
The Achievements of
nanotechnology may further change
the industries of information,
electronics, manufacture, chemical
process, pharmaceuticals, materials
and environmental protection etc.
—— However, once nanotechnology is extensively
applied in various felds, numerous challenges in
aspects such as human health, social ethics,
ecological environment, etc may appear. Research
already show, that some nano powder have
special toxicity , nano particles and nano carbon
tube may trigger cancer and could penetrate
animal’s blood-brain barrier, and the waste
disposal of nano materials may bring us to face
new problems. If one day nanotechnology is used
to make danger weapons, man has yet to fnd
ways and means to protect ourselves.
Progress of cognitive science will possibly
trigger
revolutionary
changes
for
computer, communication, brain/nervous
science, and even learning and education,
providing more efective means for the
well-being and development of human
brain and neural system, and the
prevention and cure of mental diseases.
—— However, improper use of cognitive
science may lead to control of man’s
behavior, sensibility and thought such
as psychological inducement, cognition
inducement, etc and cause serious
ethical
problems
such
as
illegal
infringement on human rights such as
privacy and
self-determination of
behavior, etc.
Combination of information
technology and life sciences with
biotechnology, nanotechnology,
cognitive science and
mathematics / system science
will fnd new, efective and
simple mathematic tools and
methods to understand matters,
life and human cognizing
process, and possibly trigger of
new scientifc and technological
revolution.
—— However, this may also bring about new
knowledge gap and imbalance of development.
Advanced and extensive application of
space technology (GIS,GPS,RS) has
expanded human’s visions of cognition,
promoted developing the earth,
resource and environmental science,
provided the technological support for
agriculture, monitoring the ecoenvironmentals, forecasting climate
change and natural disaster, and
creation of a digital earth.
—— but under modern space supervision, it’s
dificult to keep individual privacy and
confdentials of commercial information, so
countries possessing space supervision
technologies inevitably have information
advantages, thus causing new ethical problems
such as dissymmetry of information, unfair of
development, etc.
As fortune created by mankind jointly, science
and technology has the characteristics of
accumulation, sharable and re-creation. It
should beneft all mankind.
Meanwhile, we should clear realize that science
and technology is also a double-edged sword,
once misused, it may endanger natural
ecosystem, human rights, life in the earth, and
harmonious and sustainable evolution between
human society and nature, thus causing further
unfair, insecurity, disharmony, no
sustainablility, and even man-made disasters.
Scientifc ethics that mankind
should all abide
Scientists and engineers should not only have the interest
and passion for creation, but also shoulder the social
responsibility.
In S&T innovation, we should respect life (including that of
mankind and other life).
In S&T innovation, we should respect the human rights
fairly (including that among not just the contemporaries
but also the diferent generations).
In S&T innovation, we should respect dignity of human
(including those of diferent ethnic groups, genders, ages
and with diferent beliefs).
In S&T innovation, we should respect nature, protect ecosystems and environment, and realize harmonious
coexistence and sustainable evolution between man and
nature.
Commonality between ancient oriental
philosophy
and
2500modern
years ago,scientifc
the Chineseethics
philosopher
Confucius (551 BC — 479 BC) put forward
the following ethical norms:
•treasure life
•treat people equally
•respect each other
•encourage creation
•be faithful and trustable
Ancient
oriental
philosophy
attaches
importance
to the unity of heaven and man,
harmonious
Confucius (551 BC － 479 BC) said, “Without
coexistence
man of
and
nature.
recognizingbetween
the ordinances
Heaven,
it is
impossible to be a superior man” (The
Analects· Yao Yue) － in which “ordinances
of Heaven” means the rule of nature.
Lao Tzu (around 571 BC －
471 BC) once
said, “Tao models itself after the nature”
(The Classic of the Way and virtue),
highlighting the necessity of abiding by the
rule of nature.
Ancient
oriental
philosophy
attaches
importance
to the unity of heaven and man,
harmonious
Zhuang Tzubetween
(around 369
BC and
－ nature.
286 BC)
coexistence
man
once said, “There is nothing superior; there
is nothing inferior” (Zhuang Tzu · Discussion
on Making All Things Equal) － requesting to
treat all things in the universe equally.
Mencius (around 372 BC －
289 BC)
asserted “loving people and treasuring
things”(Mencius·Doctrine
of Extending
Afection), treating people kindly and loving
the nature.
It is not scientifc and technological development
itself but just improper use that accounts for some
ethical problems arising along with scientifc and
technological development. Man should by no
means give up or restrict scientifc and
technological development in the excuse of
ethnics.
——Exploring the unknown world, innovating production
mode and lifestyle and preserving the eco-environment are
everlasting drive for scientifc and technology.
——Science and technology is the inexhaustible source
and driving force for progress of human civilization.
——It is the common social responsibility for scientists and
engineers to develop science and technology to promote the
welfare of human beings.
——The combination of scientifc spirit and humanistic
spirit will inevitably help to establish new ethical norms
We are convinced that so long as
Scientists, Engineers and other peoples
of all countries work hand in hand to
face common challenges, enhance
exchange and adequately cooperate
each other, we will be able to create a
more promising future for mankind!
Ethics is about choices, and agricultural ethics
is about choices for people engaged in agriculture
either directly as farmers, or indirectly as
government regulators, extension agents,
researchers, CEOs, industrial workers, lawmakers,
technology developers, consumers, or protestors.
Role of Ethics in
Agriculture
Ethics is a systematic and critical analysis of
morality, of the moral factors that guide human
conduct in a particular society or practice.
As agriculture represent an interaction
between humans and the aquatic ecosystem,
agriculture ethics deals with the values,
rules, duties and virtues of relevance to both
human and ecosystem well-being, providing a
critical normative analysis of the moral issues
at stake in that sector of human activities.
Agric. Ethics
Agriculture has a long history. Starting
approximately 12,000 years ago, the
domestication of plants and animals began
independently in several diferent places,
including centers in West Asia, East Asia, Central
America, and South America.
Domestication also may have occurred in other
locations, although convincing archeological
evidence has not been found.
In the domestication process, humans manipulated
animals, plants, and the environment in various
ways to increase the availability of the desirable
species and desired traits of these species
Agric. Ethics
It is less widely known that religious, political, and
philosophical refection on agriculture and the
environment also has a long history
The fundamental value of agriculture was
highlighted by Enlightenment thinkers from John
Locke to Thomas Jeferson, who underscored the
political, economic, and philosophical importance of
“tillers of the soil”
In the late twentieth century, systematic thinking
about the values and norms associated with the food
system—farming, resource management, food
processing, distribution, trade, and consumption—
came to be referred to as agricultural ethics.
Agric. Ethics
Agricultural ethics incorporates elements of
philosophical ethical analysis with concerns
about particular issue areas that arise in
connection with the food system.
Many issues associated with the food system
arise from actions that are justifable from the
perspective of one ethical theory but clearly
wrong from the perspective of another
This is why they are referred to as issues: situations in
which some people’s positions or arguments about what
constitutes the right or wrong thing(s) to do are at
variance with, and in confict with, other people’s
arguments.
focus of agricultural ethics as
issues in the food system
farm structure,
animal ethics,
food safety,
environmental impacts,
international trade,
food security,
agricultural biotechnology,
research ethics,
public trust in science,
the process of institutionalizing agricultural
ethics.
FARM STRUCTURE
Farm structure refers to the general social and
economic features of agriculture in a given
society.
It includes elements such as the average size of
farms, relative market shares of diferent-sized
farms, numbers of people employed in farming,
and whether or not farms are owner-operated.
There are many causes of structural change.
Improved farm technology allowed farm size to
grow while improving eficiency and productivity.
Better transportation allowed access to markets
far from the farm gate.
ANIMAL ETHICS
The use of animals in agriculture raises many
ethical issues. A few of the questions raised by
the practice of producing animals for food are
the following:
how long will the Earth’s natural resources be
able to sustain an industrial agricultural system
devoted to high-volume, low-cost, monoculture
production of animal feedstufs?
To what extent will animal producers pay for
environmental externalities such as soil erosion
and loss of biodiversity in rangeland?
ANIMAL ETHICS
Answers to these questions will depend, in
large part, on one’s views about the moral
status of animals and humans’ responsibilities.
For example, we may do whatever we please to
animals; animals have value only as means to
human ends, either because animals are not
sentient (it is believed) or because they lack
consciousness.
Ethical issues in animal production arise only in
contexts such as resource use or environmental
impacts.
ANIMAL ETHICS
Animals can be harmed just as people can,
and they can be benefted as well.
Utilitarian ethics demands that we attempt to
achieve a balance of humans’ and animals’
benefts and harms.
Accordingly, genetically engineering “happy”
farm animals may be ethically required.
FOOD SAFETY
Food safety is an ethical issue in part because,
in the modern food production-transportationprocessingwholesaling-retailing chain, foods
can be exposed to chemicals or microbial
pathogens, or simply can be mishandled.
In addition, the food system is not transparent;
that is, consumers on their own may not know
or be able to tell whether the foods they
purchase and eat will put them at risk for
sickness or disease or even allergic reactions.
FOOD SAFETY
The complexity and lack of transparency of the
production system leads to the need for
agencies such as public health departments, to
play an important role in ensuring food safety.
On this view, governments have an ethical
responsibility to ensure that rights are not
violated and that food is therefore safe.
But, determining food safety is not simple:
“safe” implies a value judgment that potential
hazards have been adequately analyzed and
that any remaining risks are “acceptable”
FOOD SAFETY
Some people have called for implementation of a
“precautionary approach” in food safety assessments
(as well as in environmental risk assessments),
which would place stricter demands on regulators.
The precautionary approach would require that risk
analyses be exhaustive; products being evaluated
would be deemed “safe” only if it could be
determined that there are no risks associated with
the use or consumption of the product.
Issues pertaining to the potential negative impacts of
certifed “safe” foods on certain groups (e.g.,
children or highly allergic individuals) also have
been raised.
ENVIRONMENTAL
IMPACTS
Together with managed forests, crop
agriculture and animal production dominate
human-managed ecosystems on both a
national and global scale. Along with that
domination come the tremendous
environmental impacts that agriculture has
had and continues to have.
These environmental impacts fall into three
general areas of ethical concern.
three general areas of
ethical concern in
environment.
1. Agricultural production practices can have toxic
efects through organic wastes and chemical
pollution, which can afect nontarget organisms,
leave chemical residues on food, and expose
farm workers and other human beings to harm.
2. Agricultural use of soil, water, and genetic
resources can be wasteful.
3. Agriculture has a range of efects on wild
organisms and natural ecosystems that goes
beyond the direct efects of exposure to
chemical toxins
e.g: do transgenic crops have unwanted
environmental impacts ?
ENVIRONMENTAL
IMPACTS
Although most people would agree that these
questions raise ethical concerns, dificult philosophical
issues arise in attempting to articulate a response.
Questions of acceptable risk, and norms for weighing
the degree and distribution of risks against benefts,
are central in each issue.
As is the case with food safety, tensions arise between
utilitarian- and rights-oriented approaches to risk.
In addition, wasteful practices and efects on wild
areas might be understood as ethically signifcant by
virtue of their efects on the rights or welfare of future
generations.
ENVIRONMENTAL
IMPACTS
Alternatively, some people believe that humans
have obligations of stewardship and respect for
nature that go beyond any use human beings
will ever make of natural resources.
Debates over the environmental impact of
transgenic crops have raised anew the question
of just what is an unwanted environmental
impact (UNFAO 2001). Whether transgenic
crops might provide environmental benefts over
traditional cultivars also is relevant here.
INTERNATIONAL
TRADE
There long have been questions about the fairness
of the conditions of international trade, especially
between richer and poorer nations (countries)
Most current ethical questions focus on the
institutional arrangement under which global trade
now is conducted—the World Trade Organization
(WTO).
Membership in the WTO implies that a nation agrees
to abide by WTO rules concerning labor and
production practices, environmental regulations,
upholding of patent protections, and the adjudication
of trade disputes.
INTERNATIONAL
TRADE
The WTO negotiations, rules, and sanctions
clearly have ethical overtones. The existence
of the WTO itself also has been subject to
challenges: certain lesser-developed
countries (LDCs) see the organization as a
tool for developed country’s corporations to
gain/maintain control over their internal
political and economic arrangements.
FOOD SECURITY
Food security is an umbrella term that covers a
wide variety of issues.
At its most basic level, food security notes that
having enough food is a basic need for all human
beings, and that threats to the food that people
need to survive are among the most basic problems
human beings have faced since antiquity.
The phenomenon of hunger continues to be an
important topic for agricultural ethics, as well. For
example, what moral obligations do people who are
relatively well-of have to those who are less wellof?
AGRICULTURAL
BIOTECHNOLOGY
The development of recombinant DNA
techniques for transforming agricultural plants
and animals, as well as for food processing and
animal drugs, has been the focus of controversy
for more than 25 years
Agricultural biotechnology is debated in terms
of food safety and consumer consent, the
broader environmental efects of its use in crop
and livestock production, its impact on the
structure of agriculture, and its potential to
address problems of hunger on a global basis
AGRICULTURAL
BIOTECHNOLOGY
Each of these issues might be raised with
respect to many technologies that afect
yields or production practices in the food
system.
RESEARCH ETHICS
Within many domains of science, research
ethics has focused
primarily on human subjects and informed
consent, and
secondarily on the use of animals as research
subjects.
Whereas the frst concern has not afected
agricultural researchers, the second one has.
RESEARCH ETHICS
Research ethics is coming to be seen in terms of
the broader steering of and control over the
research agenda and the proper role of selfinterested actors (such as corporations) in
supporting public-sector scientifc research.
In agricultural research, these ethical issues
concern the appropriate way that food consumers,
citizens, and other food system outsiders should
have their values refected in the development of
agricultural production practices, especially as
these practices are afected by new technology.
TRUST IN SCIENCE
Agricultural science is a communal process
devoted to the discovery of knowledge and to
open and honest communication of
knowledge.
Its success, therefore, rests on two diferent
kinds of values.
TRUST IN SCIENCE
Epistemological values are values by which
scientists determine which knowledge claims are
better than others.
The values include clarity, objectivity, capacity to
explain a range of observations, and ability to
generate accurate predictions.
Epistemological values in science also include
fecundity, or the ability to generate useful new
hypotheses; simplicity, or the ability to explain
observations with the fewest number of additional
assumptions or qualifcations; and elegance, or
scientifc precision.
TRUST IN SCIENCE
Personal values, including honesty and responsibility,
are a second kind of values—those that allow scientists
to trust the knowledge claims of their peers.
If scientists are dishonest, untruthful, fraudulent, or excessively
self-interested, the free fow of accurate information essential
to science will be thwarted.
If a scientist plagiarizes the work of others or uses fabricated
data, that scientist's work will become shrouded in suspicion
and otherwise reliable data will not be trusted.
If scientists exploit those who work under them or discriminate
because of gender, race, class, or age, then the mechanisms of
trust and collegiality that underlie science, and provide science
with its a priori ethical justifability, will be eroded
INSTITUTIONALIZING
AGRICULTURAL ETHICS?
Ethical concerns have always been important
in agriculture.
However, that ethics has not always been
given an explicit place in the structure of
organizations dedicated to agricultural
leadership, decision making, education, and
research.
INSTITUTIONALIZING
AGRICULTURAL ETHICS?
The most direct strategy for institutionalizing ethics
is for everyone in the food system to begin to
include some consideration of ethics in the actions,
decisions, and policies they create or support.
This strategy means that farmers, scientists,
research administrators, regulators, and decision
makers at the highest levels routinely would refect
on the ethical rightness or wrongness of their own
actions and decisions, as well as those of others;
engage in debate as appropriate; and, ultimately,
try to act ethically.
Agricultural
intensifcation
Agricultural intensifcation can be technically
defned as an increase in agricultural production
per unit of inputs (which may be labour, land, time,
fertilizer, seed, feed or cash).
For practical purposes, intensifcation occurs when
there is an increase in the total volume of agricultural
production that results from a higher productivity of
inputs, or agricultural production is maintained while
certain inputs are decreased (such as by more
efective delivery of smaller amounts of fertilizer,
better targeting of plant or animal protection, and
mixed or relay cropping on smaller felds).
An ethics framework
The word “ethics” refers to principles or standards
that defne behaviour, action or rules for action that
is considered to be right, good and proper.
A framework for organizing the enormous variety of
ethical standards that have served in this role
throughout human history can be developed from a
simple schema of human action.
Individuals, associations or the designated agents
of organizations can each be characterized as
actors (see fgure of next slide),
ELEMENTS OF HUMAN ACTION
An ethics framework
Actors considering or initiating action do so
under three kinds of constraints that determine
which action or behaviour is possible
constraints determine the physical universe of
possibility limits of possible actions represent
technology.
law and policy limit the universe of possible
behaviour and action that an actor will consider.
individuals and associations limit the universe
of possible alternatives for action.
When is intensifcation
ethically good?
Utilitarian ethics
Agricultural intensifcation is a process that
occurs when individual human beings,
communities or organizations take actions of
one sort or another.
Rights-based ethics
A rightsbased approach to intensifcation is
more concerned as to whether the actions that
result in higher food production are consistent
with these rights and duties than in their
eventual efect on human welfare.
When is intensifcation
ethically good?
Utilitarianism and rights-based ethics
The basic tension between utilitarian
consequentialism, on the one hand, and
rightsbased ethics, on the other, underlies many
issues associated with agricultural intensifcation.
Researchers have used the germplasm in breeding
programmes to develop higher-yielding varieties as well
as searching for other valuable genetic traits.
From a utilitarian viewpoint, the increased yields of new
varieties more than justifed the collection of
germplasm, and researchers saw no ethical issue in
using seeds they had collected this way. However,
critics asserted that researchers had failed to show
proper respect for the rights of indigenous farmers
whose forebears had saved seed for centuries.