Agricultural philosophy
Encyclopedia
Agricultural philosophy is, roughly, a discipline devoted to the systematic critique of the philosophical frameworks (or ethical world views) that are the foundation for decisions regarding agriculture. Many of these views are also used to guide decisions dealing with land use in general. (Please see the wikipedia article on environmental philosophy
.) In everyday usage, it can also be defined as the love of, search after, and wisdom associated with agriculture, as one of humanity's founding components of civilization. However, this view is more aptly known as agrarianism
. In actuality, agrarianism is only one philosophy or normative framework out of many that people use to guide their decisions regarding agriculture on an everyday basis. The most prevalent of these philosophies will be briefly defined below.
and John Stuart Mill
. Though there are many varieties of utilitarianism
, generally the view is that a morally right action is an action that produces the maximum good for people. This theory is a form of consequentialism
; which basically means that the correct action is understood entirely in terms of the consequences of that action. Utilitarianism is often used when deciding farming issues. For example, farmland is commonly valued based upon its capacity to the grow crops that people want. This approach to valuing land is called Asset Theory (in contrast to Location Theory) and it's based upon utilitarian principles. Another example is when a community decides on what to do with a particular parcel of land. Let's say that this community must decide to use it for industry, residential uses, or for farming. By using a utilitarian approach, the council would judge which use would benefit the greatest number of people in the community and then make their choice based upon that information. Finally, it also forms the foundation for industrial farming; as an increase in yield, which would increase the number of people able to receive goods from farmed land, is judged from this view to be a good action or approach. Indeed, a common argument in favor of industrial agriculture
is this it is a good practice because it increases the benefits for humans; benefits such as food abundance and a drop in food prices.
However, several scholars and writers, such as Peter Singer
, Aldo Leopold
, Vandana Shiva
, Barbara Kingsolver
, and Wendell Berry
have argued against this view. For example, Singer argues that the suffering of animals (farm animals included) should be included in the cost/benefit calculus when deciding whether or not to do an action such as industrial farming. It has also been challenged on the grounds that farmland and farm animals are instrumentalized in this view and not valued in and of themselves. In addition, systems thinkers, deep ecologists, and agrarian philosophers (such as Aldo Leopold
& Wendell Berry
) critique this view on the grounds that it ignores aspects of farming which are morally applicable and/or intrinsically valuable. The Slow Food Movement and the Buy Local Agricultural Movements are also built upon philosophical views morally opposed to extreme versions of this approach. Other critiques will be explored below when different philosophical approaches to agriculture are briefly explained. However, it is important to note that the Utilitarian approach to agriculture is currently the most widespread approach within the modern Western World.
. Libertarianism is, roughly, the moral view that agents own themselves and have certain moral rights including the right to acquire property. In a looser sense, Libertarianism is commonly identified with the belief that each person has a right to a maximum amount of liberty when this liberty does not interfere with other people's freedom. A well known Libertarian theorist is John Hospers
. Within this view, property rights are natural rights. Thus, it would be acceptable for a farmer to inefficiently farm their land as long as they don't harm others while doing it. In 1968, Garrett Harden applied this philosophy to land/farming issues when he argued that the only solution to the "Tragedy of the Commons
" was to place soil and water resources into the hands of private citizens. He then supplied utilitarian justifications to support his argument and, indeed, you could argue that Libertarianism is rooted in utilitarian ideals. However, this leaves Libertarian based land ethics open to the above critiques lodged against Utilitarian approaches to agriculture. Even excepting these critiques, the Libertarian view has been specifically challenged by the critique that people making self-interested decisions can cause large ecological and social disasters such as the Dust Bowl
disaster. Even so, it is a philosophical view commonly held within the United States and, especially, by U.S. ranchers and farmers.
. When focusing on agriculture, what this translates into is the uneven distribution of land and food. While both Utilitarian and Libertarian approaches to agriculture ethics could conceivably rationalize this mal-distribution, an Egalitarian approach typically favors equality whether that be equal entitlement and/or opportunity to employment or access to food. However, if you recognize that people have a right to something, then someone has to supply this opportunity or item; whether that be an individual person or the government. Thus, the Egalitarian view links land and water with the right to food. With the growth of human populations and the decline of soil and water resources, Egalitarianism could provide a strong argument for the preservation of soil fertility and water.
's Gaia hypothesis
which postulates that the Earth is an organism and deep ecologists
who argue that human communities are built upon a foundation of the surrounding ecosystems or the biotic communities. While the above philosophies can be useful for guiding decision making on issues concerning land in general, they have limited usefulness when applied to agriculture because these philosophies privilege natural ecosystems and agricultural ecosystems are often considered not natural. One philosophy grounded in the principle that land has intrinsic value which is directly applicable to agriculture is Aldo Leopold
's stewardship ethic or land ethic
. For Leopold, an action is correct if it tends to "preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community". Similar to Egalitarian based land ethics, many of the above philosophies were also developed as alternatives to utilitarian and libertarian based approaches. Leopold's ethic is currently one of the most popular ecological approaches to agriculture commonly known as agrarianism
. Other agrarianists include Benjamin Franklin
, Thomas Jefferson
, J. Hector St. John de Crèvecœur (1735–1813), Ralph Waldo Emerson
(1803–1882), Henry David Thoreau
(1817–1862), John Steinbeck
(1902–1968), Wendell Berry
(b. 1934), Gene Logsdon
(b. 1932), Paul B. Thompson
, and Barbara Kingsolver
.
Environmental philosophy
Environmental philosophy is a branch of philosophy that is concerned with the natural environment and humans' place within it. Environmental philosophy includes environmental ethics, environmental aesthetics, ecofeminism and environmental theology...
.) In everyday usage, it can also be defined as the love of, search after, and wisdom associated with agriculture, as one of humanity's founding components of civilization. However, this view is more aptly known as agrarianism
Agrarianism
Agrarianism has two common meanings. The first meaning refers to a social philosophy or political philosophy which values rural society as superior to urban society, the independent farmer as superior to the paid worker, and sees farming as a way of life that can shape the ideal social values...
. In actuality, agrarianism is only one philosophy or normative framework out of many that people use to guide their decisions regarding agriculture on an everyday basis. The most prevalent of these philosophies will be briefly defined below.
Utilitarian approach
This view was first put forth by Jeremy BenthamJeremy Bentham
Jeremy Bentham was an English jurist, philosopher, and legal and social reformer. He became a leading theorist in Anglo-American philosophy of law, and a political radical whose ideas influenced the development of welfarism...
and John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill was a British philosopher, economist and civil servant. An influential contributor to social theory, political theory, and political economy, his conception of liberty justified the freedom of the individual in opposition to unlimited state control. He was a proponent of...
. Though there are many varieties of utilitarianism
Utilitarianism
Utilitarianism is an ethical theory holding that the proper course of action is the one that maximizes the overall "happiness", by whatever means necessary. It is thus a form of consequentialism, meaning that the moral worth of an action is determined only by its resulting outcome, and that one can...
, generally the view is that a morally right action is an action that produces the maximum good for people. This theory is a form of consequentialism
Consequentialism
Consequentialism is the class of normative ethical theories holding that the consequences of one's conduct are the ultimate basis for any judgment about the rightness of that conduct...
; which basically means that the correct action is understood entirely in terms of the consequences of that action. Utilitarianism is often used when deciding farming issues. For example, farmland is commonly valued based upon its capacity to the grow crops that people want. This approach to valuing land is called Asset Theory (in contrast to Location Theory) and it's based upon utilitarian principles. Another example is when a community decides on what to do with a particular parcel of land. Let's say that this community must decide to use it for industry, residential uses, or for farming. By using a utilitarian approach, the council would judge which use would benefit the greatest number of people in the community and then make their choice based upon that information. Finally, it also forms the foundation for industrial farming; as an increase in yield, which would increase the number of people able to receive goods from farmed land, is judged from this view to be a good action or approach. Indeed, a common argument in favor of industrial agriculture
Industrial agriculture
Industrial farming is a form of modern farming that refers to the industrialized production of livestock, poultry, fish, and crops. The methods of industrial agriculture are technoscientific, economic, and political...
is this it is a good practice because it increases the benefits for humans; benefits such as food abundance and a drop in food prices.
However, several scholars and writers, such as Peter Singer
Peter Singer
Peter Albert David Singer is an Australian philosopher who is the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University and Laureate Professor at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics at the University of Melbourne...
, Aldo Leopold
Aldo Leopold
Aldo Leopold was an American author, scientist, ecologist, forester, and environmentalist. He was a professor at the University of Wisconsin and is best known for his book A Sand County Almanac , which has sold over two million copies...
, Vandana Shiva
Vandana Shiva
Vandana Shiva , is a philosopher, environmental activist, and eco feminist. Shiva, currently based in Delhi, has authored more than 20 books and over 500 papers in leading scientific and technical journals. She was trained as a physicist and received her Ph.D...
, Barbara Kingsolver
Barbara Kingsolver
Barbara Kingsolver is an American novelist, essayist and poet. She was raised in rural Kentucky and lived briefly in the former Republic of Congo in her early childhood. Kingsolver earned degrees in biology at DePauw University and the University of Arizona and worked as a freelance writer before...
, and Wendell Berry
Wendell Berry
Wendell Berry is an American man of letters, academic, cultural and economic critic, and farmer. He is a prolific author of novels, short stories, poems, and essays...
have argued against this view. For example, Singer argues that the suffering of animals (farm animals included) should be included in the cost/benefit calculus when deciding whether or not to do an action such as industrial farming. It has also been challenged on the grounds that farmland and farm animals are instrumentalized in this view and not valued in and of themselves. In addition, systems thinkers, deep ecologists, and agrarian philosophers (such as Aldo Leopold
Aldo Leopold
Aldo Leopold was an American author, scientist, ecologist, forester, and environmentalist. He was a professor at the University of Wisconsin and is best known for his book A Sand County Almanac , which has sold over two million copies...
& Wendell Berry
Wendell Berry
Wendell Berry is an American man of letters, academic, cultural and economic critic, and farmer. He is a prolific author of novels, short stories, poems, and essays...
) critique this view on the grounds that it ignores aspects of farming which are morally applicable and/or intrinsically valuable. The Slow Food Movement and the Buy Local Agricultural Movements are also built upon philosophical views morally opposed to extreme versions of this approach. Other critiques will be explored below when different philosophical approaches to agriculture are briefly explained. However, it is important to note that the Utilitarian approach to agriculture is currently the most widespread approach within the modern Western World.
Libertarian approach
Another philosophical approach often used when deciding land or farming issues is LibertarianismLibertarianism
Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
. Libertarianism is, roughly, the moral view that agents own themselves and have certain moral rights including the right to acquire property. In a looser sense, Libertarianism is commonly identified with the belief that each person has a right to a maximum amount of liberty when this liberty does not interfere with other people's freedom. A well known Libertarian theorist is John Hospers
John Hospers
John Hospers was an American philosopher. In 1972 he was the first presidential candidate of the Libertarian Party, and the only minor party candidate to receive an electoral vote in the 1972 U.S. Presidential election....
. Within this view, property rights are natural rights. Thus, it would be acceptable for a farmer to inefficiently farm their land as long as they don't harm others while doing it. In 1968, Garrett Harden applied this philosophy to land/farming issues when he argued that the only solution to the "Tragedy of the Commons
Tragedy of the commons
The tragedy of the commons is a dilemma arising from the situation in which multiple individuals, acting independently and rationally consulting their own self-interest, will ultimately deplete a shared limited resource, even when it is clear that it is not in anyone's long-term interest for this...
" was to place soil and water resources into the hands of private citizens. He then supplied utilitarian justifications to support his argument and, indeed, you could argue that Libertarianism is rooted in utilitarian ideals. However, this leaves Libertarian based land ethics open to the above critiques lodged against Utilitarian approaches to agriculture. Even excepting these critiques, the Libertarian view has been specifically challenged by the critique that people making self-interested decisions can cause large ecological and social disasters such as the Dust Bowl
Dust Bowl
The Dust Bowl, or the Dirty Thirties, was a period of severe dust storms causing major ecological and agricultural damage to American and Canadian prairie lands from 1930 to 1936...
disaster. Even so, it is a philosophical view commonly held within the United States and, especially, by U.S. ranchers and farmers.
Egalitarian approach
Egalitarian based views are often developed as a response to Libertarianism. This is because, while Libertarianism provides for the maximum amount of human freedom, it does not require a person to help others. In addition, it also leads to the grossly uneven distribution of wealth. A well known Egalitarian philosopher is John RawlsJohn Rawls
John Bordley Rawls was an American philosopher and a leading figure in moral and political philosophy. He held the James Bryant Conant University Professorship at Harvard University....
. When focusing on agriculture, what this translates into is the uneven distribution of land and food. While both Utilitarian and Libertarian approaches to agriculture ethics could conceivably rationalize this mal-distribution, an Egalitarian approach typically favors equality whether that be equal entitlement and/or opportunity to employment or access to food. However, if you recognize that people have a right to something, then someone has to supply this opportunity or item; whether that be an individual person or the government. Thus, the Egalitarian view links land and water with the right to food. With the growth of human populations and the decline of soil and water resources, Egalitarianism could provide a strong argument for the preservation of soil fertility and water.
Ecological or systems approach
In addition to Utilitarian, Libertarian, and Egalitarian philosophies, there are also normative views that are based upon the principle that land has intrinsic value and positions coming out of an ecological or systems view. Two main examples of this are James LovelockJames Lovelock
James Lovelock, CH, CBE, FRS is an independent scientist, environmentalist and futurologist who lives in Devon, England. He is best known for proposing the Gaia hypothesis, which postulates that the biosphere is a self-regulating entity with the capacity to keep our planet healthy by controlling...
's Gaia hypothesis
Gaia hypothesis
The Gaia hypothesis, also known as Gaia theory or Gaia principle, proposes that all organisms and their inorganic surroundings on Earth are closely integrated to form a single and self-regulating complex system, maintaining the conditions for life on the planet.The scientific investigation of the...
which postulates that the Earth is an organism and deep ecologists
Deep ecology
Deep ecology is a contemporary ecological philosophy that recognizes an inherent worth of all living beings, regardless of their instrumental utility to human needs. The philosophy emphasizes the interdependence of organisms within ecosystems and that of ecosystems with each other within the...
who argue that human communities are built upon a foundation of the surrounding ecosystems or the biotic communities. While the above philosophies can be useful for guiding decision making on issues concerning land in general, they have limited usefulness when applied to agriculture because these philosophies privilege natural ecosystems and agricultural ecosystems are often considered not natural. One philosophy grounded in the principle that land has intrinsic value which is directly applicable to agriculture is Aldo Leopold
Aldo Leopold
Aldo Leopold was an American author, scientist, ecologist, forester, and environmentalist. He was a professor at the University of Wisconsin and is best known for his book A Sand County Almanac , which has sold over two million copies...
's stewardship ethic or land ethic
Land ethic
A Land Ethic is a philosophy that guides your actions when you utilize or make changes to the land. This specific term was first coined by Aldo Leopold in his book A Sand County Almanac . Within this work, he wrote that there is a need for a "new ethic", an "ethic dealing with man's relation to...
. For Leopold, an action is correct if it tends to "preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community". Similar to Egalitarian based land ethics, many of the above philosophies were also developed as alternatives to utilitarian and libertarian based approaches. Leopold's ethic is currently one of the most popular ecological approaches to agriculture commonly known as agrarianism
Agrarianism
Agrarianism has two common meanings. The first meaning refers to a social philosophy or political philosophy which values rural society as superior to urban society, the independent farmer as superior to the paid worker, and sees farming as a way of life that can shape the ideal social values...
. Other agrarianists include Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin
Dr. Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A noted polymath, Franklin was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, musician, inventor, satirist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat...
, Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...
, J. Hector St. John de Crèvecœur (1735–1813), Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century...
(1803–1882), Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau was an American author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian, and leading transcendentalist...
(1817–1862), John Steinbeck
John Steinbeck
John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. was an American writer. He is widely known for the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden and the novella Of Mice and Men...
(1902–1968), Wendell Berry
Wendell Berry
Wendell Berry is an American man of letters, academic, cultural and economic critic, and farmer. He is a prolific author of novels, short stories, poems, and essays...
(b. 1934), Gene Logsdon
Gene Logsdon
Gene Logsdon is an American man of letters, cultural and economic critic, and farmer. He is a prolific author of essays, novels, and nonfiction books about agrarian issues, ideals, and techniques.Gene Logsdon farms in Upper Sandusky, Ohio...
(b. 1932), Paul B. Thompson
Paul B. Thompson (philosopher)
Paul B. Thompson is a philosopher currently teaching at Michigan State University where he holds the W.K. Kellogg Chair in Agricultural Food and Community Ethics. Thompson earned his B.A. at Emory University before going on to earn a Ph.D. in philosophy at the State University of New York at Stony...
, and Barbara Kingsolver
Barbara Kingsolver
Barbara Kingsolver is an American novelist, essayist and poet. She was raised in rural Kentucky and lived briefly in the former Republic of Congo in her early childhood. Kingsolver earned degrees in biology at DePauw University and the University of Arizona and worked as a freelance writer before...
.