Agriculture's Ethical Horizon

by Robert L Zimdahl

Overview

What are the goals of agricultural science? What should the goals of agricultural science be? How do and how should the practitioners of agriculture address complex ethical questions? These questions are explored in this monumental book so that those in agriculture will begin an open dialoge on the ethics of agriculture.

Discussion of foundational values, of why we practice agriculture as we do, should become a central, rather than peripheral, part of agricultural practice and education. If agricultural scientists do not venture forth to understand and shape the ethical base of the future, it will be imposed by others. Largely autobiographical, this book covers topics such as scientific truth and myth, what agricultural research should be done, an introduction to ethics, moral confidence in agriculture, the relevance of ethics to agriculture, sustainability, and biotechnology.

• Written by an expert who has been engaged in agricultural education and research for over 35 years
• Content is easily understandable by non-philosophers
• The concepts of scientific truth and myth are contrasted and compared
• Chapter sidebars highlight important concepts and can be used to engage students in further discussion

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780080461120
Publisher:	Elsevier Science
Publication date:	07/26/2010
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Robert L. Zimdahl is a Professor of Weed Science at Colorado State University. He received his Ph.D. in Agronomy from Oregon State University. Among his many honors and awards, Dr. Zimdahl was elected a Fellow of the Weed Science Society of America in 1986 and currently serves as editor of that society’s journal, Weed Science. He has been a member of several international task forces and has authored a number of books and articles on the subject of weed science. He is the author of Fundamentals of Weed Science, and Six Chemicals that Changed Agriculture both from Elsevier.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: The Horizon of Agricultural Ethics

Chapter 2: The Conduct of Agricultural Science

Chapter 3: When Things Go Wrong—Balancing Technology’s Safety and Risk

Chapter 4: An Introduction to Ethics

Chapter 5: Moral Confidence in Agriculture

Chapter 6: The Relevance of Ethics to Agriculture and Weed Science

Chapter 7: Agricultural Sustainability

Chapter 8: Biotechnology

Chapter 9: How to Proceed

Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

This important book explores agriculture's ethical horizon: the boundary line that separates and delineates one's outlook and knowledge

Editorial Reviews

Praise for the first edition:"This book takes on the largest scientific and ethical challenge of our past and present and does so in an engaging manner." - Wes Jackson, President, The Land Institute

Agriculture's Ethical Horizon is both a competent review of value conflicts in agriculture and a striking tale of the intellectual, even spiritual, transformation of an agriculturalist who was a leader in one agriculture's most dramatic technical revolutions, the development of chemical weed control. Everyone will find something to criticize. No alert reader will be left unaffected and most will have responses which, in their sense of being intellectually cool, they will have to admit are profoundly emotional—one way or the other. I predict that whole conferences will be based on this book. Historians of environmental sciences should pay particular attention." - Stanislaus J. Dundon, California State University, Sacramento

From the Publisher