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.

On the Ethics of Anthropogenic Changes and Challenges: “Animals in Our Midst: The Challenges of Co-existing with Animals in the Anthropocene” edited by Bernice Bovenkerk and Josef Keulartz
(Source: Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics)
Source: Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics - April 25, 2022 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research

The Ethics of Innovations in Genomic Selection: On How to Broaden the Scope of Discussion
AbstractThe use of genomic selection in agricultural animal breeding is in academic literature generally considered an ethically unproblematic development, but some critical views have been offered. Our paper shows that an important preliminary question for any ethical evaluation of (innovations in) genomic selection is how the scope of discussion should be set, that is, which ethical issues and perspectives ought to be considered. This scope is determined by three partly overlapping choices. The first choice is which ethical concepts to include: an ethical discussion of genomic selection approaches may draw on concepts ce...
Source: Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics - April 22, 2022 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research

Motivations of Public Officials as Drivers of Transition to Sustainable School Food Provisioning: Insights from Avignon, France
AbstractA large body of experience and expertise on the implementation of sustainable public school food procurement policies has developed in recent years. However, there has been little investigation of the values and motivations of the public officials implementing the policies. To address this gap, we examine how the city of Avignon (France) took a step toward transition to local fresh food procurement for public schools, under French government calls for sustainable food products in public canteens. Our analysis combines the Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) on sustainable transitions with the Public Service Motivation co...
Source: Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics - April 2, 2022 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research

Agency and Autonomy in Food Choice: Can We Really Vote with Our Forks?
AbstractEthical consumerism is the thesis that we should let our values determine our consumer purchases. We should purchase items that accord with our values and refrain from buying those that do not. The end goal, for ethical consumerism, is to transform the market through consumer demand. The arm of this movement associated with food choice embraces the slogan “Vote with Your Fork!” As in the more general movement, the idea is that we should let our values dictate our choices. In this paper, I offer a critique of the Vote with Your Fork campaign (hereafter VWYF) that focuses on the agency of individuals. For VWYF to...
Source: Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics - February 22, 2022 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research

Automating Agroecology: How to Design a Farming Robot Without a Monocultural Mindset?
AbstractRobots are widely expected —and pushed—to transform open-field agriculture, but these visions remain wedded to optimizing monocultural farming systems. Meanwhile there is little pull for automation from ecology-based, diversified farming realms. Noting this gap, we here explore the potential for robots to foster an agroec ological approach to crop production. The research was situated in The Netherlands within the case ofpixel cropping, a nascent farming method in which multiple food and service crops are planted together in diverse assemblages employing agroecological practices such as intercropping and biolog...
Source: Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics - January 22, 2022 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research

Plants as Machines: History, Philosophy and Practical Consequences of an Idea
AbstractThis paper elucidates the philosophical origins of the conception of plants as machines and analyses the contemporary technical and ethical consequences of that thinking. First, we explain the historical relationship between the explicit animal machine thesis of Descartes and the implicit plant machine thesis of today. Our hypothesis is that, although it is rarely discussed, the plant machine thesis remains influential. We define the philosophical criteria for both a moderate and radical interpretation of the thesis. Then, assessing the compatibility of current botanical knowledge with both interpretations, we find...
Source: Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics - January 3, 2022 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research

Quo Vadis, Bioeconomy? the Necessity of Normative Considerations in the Transition
AbstractThis collection of papers builds on the idea that the bioeconomy provides a framework for potentially effective solutions addressing the grand global challenges by a turn towards an increased use of biological resources, towards renewability and circularity. Consequently, it cannot be perceived as an end in itself. Thus, innovative endeavors within this bioeconomy framework require a serious examination of their normative premises and implications. From different perspectives, the five contributions to the collection demonstrate that for a bioeconomy that is to contribute to the transformation towards sustainabilit...
Source: Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics - December 16, 2021 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research

Glyphosate-Based Herbicides and Public Health: Making Sense of the Science
AbstractThe controversy over glyphosate-based herbicides (GBHs), where there is extreme divergences in health and environmental assessments, is rooted in several methodological and normative factors. Foremost among them are the differences found in testing pure glyphosate compared to the testing of glyphosate formulations. The adjuvant chemicals found in formulations can be more toxic than the so-called “active ingredient.” Other factors can also account for why scientists reach different conclusions on the toxicological effects of GBH including the preconceptions and methodological choices they bring into the study. L...
Source: Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics - December 10, 2021 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research

Welcoming, Wild Animals, and Obligations to Assist
AbstractWhat we could call ‘relational non-interventionism’ holds that we have nogeneral obligation to alleviate animal suffering, and that we do not typically havespecial obligations to alleviate wild animals ’ suffering. Therefore, we do not usually have a duty to intervene in nature to alleviate wild animal suffering. However, there are a range of relationships that we may have with wild animals that do generate special obligations to aid—and the consequences of these obligations can be surprising. In this paper, it is argued that we have special obligations to those animals we have historically welcomed or enco...
Source: Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics - November 27, 2021 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research

Efficiency Versus Enjoyment: Looking After the Human Condition in the Transition to the Bio-Based Economy
AbstractIn this paper, we criticize the current focus of the bio-based economy (BBE) on efficiency and control and demonstrate the contradictions that this causes. We elucidate these tensions by comparing the BBE to alternative conceptions of economy that emphasise the relevance of both the human condition and unfathomable nature in the macro ecological transition project. From Emmanuel Levinas ’s philosophy, we take and extrapolate two major concepts—il y a and enjoyment —that help to re-evaluate the status of both nature and the human subject involved in environmental instability. From this analysis, we evaluate cu...
Source: Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics - November 27, 2021 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research

The Indispensability of Holistic Species Experts for Ethical Animal Research
AbstractCommittee composition is a recurrent theme within the literature on Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees (IACUCs). The ability of IACUCs to ensure the ethical treatment of nonhuman research subjects depends upon who makes up these committees. Non-scientists and those not affiliated with the research institution have been deemed indispensable for the democratic, objective review of protocols and, thus, for ethical treatment. IACUCs ’ critics and partners alike have persistently offered suggestions for how to further optimize committee composition towards these ends. This paper contributes to the ongoing co...
Source: Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics - November 24, 2021 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research

Governance and Standardization in Fish Value Chains: Do They Take Care of Key Animal Welfare Issues?
This article discusses the extent to which Global Value Chain (GVC) governance may lead to animal welfare (AW) improvement and help to alleviate animal suffering in food producing chains. Our approach relied on scrutinizing two of the most used compulsory certification templates which are enforced by major buyers to their suppliers in order to assure responsible activity in the farmed fish chain (GlobalG.A.P. certification scheme) and in the wild-captured fish chain (Marine Stewardship Council —MSC). Since fish may experience intense suffering in regular activities involved in catching, maintenance, transport and managem...
Source: Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics - September 29, 2021 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research

Minding the Gaps in Fish Welfare: The Untapped Potential of Fish Farm Workers
This article uses fish welfare courses as a site from which to inquire about the common-sense un derstanding of fish welfare in Norwegian fish farming. The focus is specifically on fish farm employees, their experiences of welfare-related issues and contradictions in their daily work, and the struggle to act responsibly in aquaculture settings. Through participant observation at welfare co urses, as well as interviews and conversations with fish farm workers, the article details how challenges are experienced ‘on the ground’, and suggests how fish farm workers’ own experiential knowledge might be mobi...
Source: Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics - September 27, 2021 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research

Between Food and Respect for Nature: On the Moral Ambiguity of Norwegian Stakeholder Opinions on Fish and Their Welfare in Technological Innovations in Fisheries
AbstractInnovation in fisheries is a global development that focuses on a broad range of aims. One example is a project that aims to develop technology for key phases of the demersal fishery operation to improve product quality and safeguard fish welfare. As this step to include welfare is novel, it raises questions associated with stakeholder acceptance in a wider aim for responsible innovation. How do stakeholders (a) value fish and their welfare and (b) consider the relation between welfare and other relevant values? To address these questions, an approach combining desk research with an empirical study was used. The de...
Source: Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics - September 7, 2021 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research

Stamping Out Animal Culling: From Anthropocentrism to One Health Ethics
AbstractCulling is used in traditional public health policies to control animal populations. These policies aim primarily to protect human interests but often fail to provide scientific evidence of effectiveness. In this article, we defend the need to move from a strictly anthropocentric approach to disease control towards a One Health ethics, using culling practices as an example. We focus on the recent badger culls in the UK, claiming that, based on data provided by the English Government, these culls may be unjustified, all thing considered. We highlight the relevance of ethical reasoning rooted in One Health for this d...
Source: Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics - August 29, 2021 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research