Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics This is an RSS file. You can use it to subscribe to this data in your favourite RSS reader or to display this data on your own website or blog.

Some Basis for a Renewed Regulation of Agri-Food Biotechnology in the EU
Abstract A radical reform of the agri-food biotech regulation in the EU is considered in many quarters (mostly by academia and industry) as a pressing necessity. Indeed, two important decisions (by the European Court of Justice and by the Commission) on the legal status of the so-called New Breeding Techniques are expected shortly. In order to clarify some basic aspects of the complex scenario, after a brief introduction regarding the “GMO” fallacy, we offer our point of view on the following facets: (1) A faulty approach is frequent in the discussion of the agri-food regulation; (2) NBTs, genome editing may lead to...
Source: Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics - January 10, 2018 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research

A Phenomenological Theory of Ecological Responsibility and Its Implications for Moral Agency in Climate Change
AbstractIn a recent article appearing in this journal, Theresa Scavenius compellingly argues that the traditional “rational-individualistic” conception of responsibility is ill-suited to accounting for the sense in which moral agents share in responsibility for both contributing to the causes and, proactively, working towards solutions for climate change. Lacking an effective moral framework through which t o make sense of individual moral responsibility for climate change, many who have good intentions and the means to contribute to solutions for climate change tend to dismiss or put off addressing the root causes. Wi...
Source: Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics - January 10, 2018 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research

Climate Change and Moral Excuse: The Difficulty of Assigning Responsibility to Individuals
AbstractA prominent argument in the climate ethical literature is that individual polluters are responsible for paying the costs of climate change.1 By contrast, I argue that we have reason to excuse individual agents morally for their contributions to climate change. This paper explores some of the possible constraints agents may face when they try to avoid harming the climate, constraints that might be acceptable reasons for excusing people ’s contributions to climate change. Two lines of arguments are discussed. The first concerns the softinternal constraint: that democratic citizens do not experience their individual...
Source: Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics - January 9, 2018 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research

Agricultural Innovation and the Role of Institutions: Lessons from the Game of Drones
This study illuminates how legislative institutions can inhibit responsible innovation. The study shows that different ethical perspectives can collide with each other. (Source: Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics)
Source: Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics - December 29, 2017 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research

Managing Socio-Ethical Challenges in the Development of Smart Farming: From a Fragmented to a Comprehensive Approach for Responsible Research and Innovation
AbstractSmart farming (also referred to as digital farming, digital agriculture and precision agriculture) has largely been driven by productivity and efficiency aims, but there is an increasing awareness of potential socio-ethical challenges. The responsible research and innovation (RRI) approach aims to address such challenges but has had limited application in smart farming contexts. Using smart dairying research and development (R&D) in New Zealand (NZ) as a case study, we examine the extent to which principles of RRI have been applied in NZ smart dairying development and assess the broader lessons for RRI applicat...
Source: Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics - December 26, 2017 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research

Animal Welfare, National Identity and Social Change: Attitudes and Opinions of Spanish Citizens Towards Bullfighting
AbstractTraditionally, in Spain bullfighting represents an ancient and well-respected tradition and a combined brand of sport, art and national identity. However, bullfighting has received considerable criticism from various segments of society, with the concomitant rise of the animal rights movement. The paper reports a survey of the Spanish citizens using a face-to-face survey during January 2016 with a total sample of 2522 citizens (1256 men and 1266 women). The survey asked about degree of liking and approving; culture, art and national identity; socio-economic aspects; emotional perception and animal welfare. The hypo...
Source: Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics - November 23, 2017 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research

Biomimicry in Agriculture: Is the Ecological System-Design Model the Future Agricultural Paradigm?
AbstractComprising almost a third of greenhouse gas emissions and having an equally prominent role in pollution of soils, fresh water, coastal ecosystems, and food chains in general, agriculture is, alongside industry and electricity/heat production, one of the three biggest anthropogenic causes of breaching the planetary boundaries. Most of the problems in agriculture, like soil degradation and diminishing (necessary) biodiversity, are caused by unfit uses of existing technologies and approaches mimicking the agriculturally-relevant functioning natural ecosystems seem necessary for appropriate organization of our toxic an...
Source: Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics - November 22, 2017 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research

Genetically Engineered Animals, Drugs, and Neoliberalism: The Need for a New Biotechnology Regulatory Policy Framework
AbstractGenetically engineered (GE) animals that are meant for release in the wild could significantly impact ecosystems given the interwoven or entangled existence of species. Therefore, among other things, it is all too important that regulatory agencies conduct entity appropriate, rigorous risk assessments that can be used for informed decision-making at the local, national and global levels about the release of those animals in the wild. In the United States (US), certain GE animals that are intended for release in the wild may be regulated as new animal drugs by the Food and Drug Administration. This paper argues that...
Source: Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics - November 21, 2017 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research

The Caged Chicken or the Free-Range Egg? The Regulatory and Market Dynamics of Layer-Hen Welfare in the UK, Australia and the USA
AbstractSince the 1990s there have been a number of government and market led initiatives to improve the welfare of layer hens in the United Kingdom, Australia and the USA. The focus of these regulatory and market initiatives has been a shift away from the dominant battery-cage system to enriched cages, barn/aviary and free-range production systems. Government regulations have played an important role in setting some minimum welfare standards and the banning of battery cages in the UK and in some US states. However the commodification and market segmentation of higher welfare standards has also seen the growth in productio...
Source: Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics - November 21, 2017 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research

Mikael D. Wolfe: Watering the Revolution: An Environmental and Technological History of Agrarian Reform in Mexico (2017)
(Source: Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics)
Source: Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics - November 18, 2017 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research

Ethical Veganism, Virtue, and Greatness of the Soul
AbstractMany moral philosophers have criticized intensive animal farming because it can be harmful to the environment, it causes pain and misery to a large number of animals, and furthermore eating meat and animal-based products can be unhealthful. The issue of industrially farmed animals has become one of the most pressing ethical questions of our time. On the one hand,  utilitarians have argued that we should become vegetarians or vegans because the practices of raising animals for food are immoral since they minimize the overall happiness. Deontologists, on the other hand, have argued that the practices of raising anim...
Source: Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics - November 16, 2017 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research

Animal Abolitionism and ‘Racism without Racists’
AbstractAbolitionism is an animal rights' philosophy and social movement which has recently begun to grow. It has been largely contested but the criticisms directed at it have usually been articulated outside academia. In this article, I wish to contend that one of the criticisms directed at abolitionism —that it contains racist implications—is correct. I do this by defending the idea that abolitionism engages in what Eduardo Bonilla-Silva classifies as ‘racism without racists’—an unintentional and subtle form of racism. I present three ways in which abolitionism may be considered racist a nd then address some po...
Source: Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics - November 16, 2017 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research

Farm Animal Welfare Influences on Markets and Consumer Attitudes in Latin America: The Cases of Mexico, Chile and Brazil
AbstractIn recent years, animal welfare has become an important element of sustainable production that has evolved along with the transformation of animal production systems. Consumer attitudes towards farm animal welfare are changing around the world, especially at emerging markets of Asia, Africa and Latin America. Survey-based research on consumer attitudes towards farm animal welfare has increased. However, the geographical coverage of studies on consumer attitudes and perceptions about farm animal welfare has mostly been limited to Europe, and North America. Until now, Latin American consumers ’ attitudes towards an...
Source: Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics - October 13, 2017 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research

Towards a Community Based Ethic: A Phenomenological Account of Environmental Change From the Sundarbans ’s Islanders
This article provides the islanders’ phenomenological accounts of environmental change and borrowing from Heidegger’s concept of ‘Being-in-the-world’ explicates the reason behind the disparity in acknowledging environmental change across individuals. Making thi s interpretive phenomenological account of environmental change as the ground, this article offers a rubric of community-based ethic which perhaps can prove to be effective in addressing any place-specific environmental change, over and above the prevalent approach of place-based ethic. (Source: Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics)
Source: Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics - October 12, 2017 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research

The Evolution of Food Security Governance and Food Sovereignty Movement in China: An Analysis from the World Society Theory
AbstractOriginating in a 1983 Mexican Government Program, the term ‘food sovereignty’ was coined in 1996 by La Via Campesina—a global peasant network—to address concerns within the civil society for food security. Rather than to accept the neoliberal framework of mainstream food security definition and governance, the food sovereignty movement seeks to view food security as the right of peoples to define their own food and agriculture systems with limited corporation intervention. As a result, food production should be geared toward the domestic and local markets and not toward international trade that only benefit...
Source: Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics - October 11, 2017 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research