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Robert L. Zimdahl Agricultural Ethics - An Invitation Agricultural Ethics - An Invitation Robert L. Zimdahl Agricultural Ethics - An Invitation Robert L. Zimdahl Department of Agricultural Biology Colorado State University Fort Collins, CO, USA ISBN 978-3-030-48934-2 ISBN 978-3-030-48935-9 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-48935-9 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland Nature never deceives us; we deceive ourselves. v Acknowledgments It is my firm belief that there is no such thing as good writing. Revising and rewrit- ing are required to create a book. This book owes an enormous debt of gratitude to the thoughts and insights of the many authors cited. Their work has made this book possible. Special thanks are owed to the many colleagues and friends who have read and commented on sections of the book. I acknowledge the friendship, guidance, help- ful criticism, and questions offered by each of the following colleagues: Dr. James Boyd, Professor Emeritus, Colorado State University Dr. Daniel Beachy-Quick, Professor, Department of English, Colorado State University Mr. Wade Casey, Fort Collins, CO Dr. Michael Dewey, Fort Collins, CO Dr. Thomas O. Holtzer, Professor Emeritus, Colorado State University Dr. David Lehman, M.D., Fort Collins, CO Ms. Gail McKenzie, Fort Collins, CO Ms. Deborah Sullivan, South Wales, NY Dr. Paul B. Thompson, Professor, Michigan State University Dr. A. Wayne Viney, Professor Emeritus, Colorado State University Dr. Benjamin Withers, Dean College of Liberal Arts, Colorado State University I also acknowledge the thoughtful, often quite critical, but helpful comments of four anonymous reviewers. vii Contents 1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 2 From Weed Control to Ethics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 1 My Journey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 2 My Quest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 3 The Big Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 4 The University . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 5 Two Cultures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 6 Responsibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 3 Agriculture: A Brief History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 1 A Brief Story of Agriculture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 1.1 The Blood, Sweat, and Tears Era . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 1.2 The Mechanical Era . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 1.3 The Chemical Era . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 2 Beginning the Study of Weeds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 3 Advantages of Agricultural Technology: Pesticides . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 3.1 Energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 3.2 Time/Profit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 3.3 Labor and Soil Tillage Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 4 Disadvantages of Pesticides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 4.1 Cost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 4.2 Mammalian Toxicity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 4.3 Environmental Persistence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 4.4 Resistance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 4.5 Monoculture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 4.6 Other . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 5 The Paradox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 ix x Contents 4 World Population: Three Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 1 Cassandra and Pollyanna . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 2 Rev. T. R. Malthus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 3 Karl Marx . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 4 Meadows and the Limits to Growth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 5 Agriculture’s Moral Dilemmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 1 The Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 2 Concerns About Agriculture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 2.1 Sustainability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 2.2 Pesticides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 2.3 Antibiotics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 2.4 Exploitation of and Cruelty to Migrant Labor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 2.5 Loss of Biodiversity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 2.6 Animals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 2.7 Biotechnology and GMOs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 3 CRISPR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 3.1 Mining Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 3.2 The Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 3.3 Bioenergy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 4 Concluding Comment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 6 Ethics in Agriculture and Other Disciplines . . . . . . . . . . . 93 1 Surveys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 2 The University . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 3 The Ethical Dimension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 7 Seeking Common Ground . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 1 This Book’s Purpose: An Invitation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 2 Agriculture’s Paradigm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 3 Approaching Moral Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 3.1 A Few Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 3.2 The US Corn System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 3.3 The Land Grant System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 3.4 The Classroom: Teaching Agricultural Ethics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 3.5 Organic Agricultural Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 4 A Few Final Words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 8 Ethical Puzzles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 1 Ethical Puzzle Response Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 1.1 Case Study 1: To Spray or Not To Spray? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 1.2 Case Study 2: The Utility of Inaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 1.3 Case Study 3: Family Farms—Agriculture and Urbanization . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 1.4 Case Study 4: Food Aid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 Contents xi 1.5 Case Study 5: The Land . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148 1.6 Case Study 6: Egg Machines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 1.7 Case Study 7: The Legitimate Use of Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162 1.8 Case Study 8: Possums—Genetic Engineering and Protecting the Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169 Chapter 1 Introduction The book’s intent is to encourage thought and discussion and offer some recom- mendations on how to proceed to a mutually agreeable consensus on agriculture’s ethical dilemmas and on how to address them. I do not intend to present a thorough discussion of moral philosophy and ethical theories or provide another justification of the need for discussion of agricultural ethics within the agricultural community. Others have adequately discussed moral philosophy and ethical theories applicable to agriculture: American Society of Agronomy Aiken 1996 Appiah 2008 Berry 1977 Blatz 1991 Burkhardt et al. 2005 Chrispeeels 2004 Comstock 2002 Daly and Townsend 1993 Gendel, Kline, Warren, and Yates 1990 Hanson 1986 Hartel, George, and Vorst 1994 Jackson, Berry, and Coleman 1984 Kirschenmann 2010 Lehman 1985 Lockeretz 1997 Rachels and Rachels 2010 Sherlock and Morrey 2992 Thompson 1994, 1995, and 1998 Wojcik 1989: (see endnote1) © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 1 R. L. Zimdahl, Agricultural Ethics, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-48935-9_1

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