Jeffrey Burkhardt

Plant Breeding and Biotechnology

Crop improvement by traditional breeding versus biotechnology is analysed here. Since new technologies can truncate time and space and increase precision, plant improvement could become more factory like, creating a world where agriculture depends on industry. Private sector funding for research in biotechnology is increasing giving rise to a conflict of interests. Seed companies rather than farmers stand to benefit most, and marketing and advertising of seeds and chemicals will play an increasingly important role in the future. 42 references.

Rethinking Exotic Plants: Using Citizen Observations in a Restoration Proposal for Kings Bay, Florida

The Kings Bay, Crystal River complex, located in Citrus County, Florida, is one of the world’s largest spring-fed ecosystems and a critical warm-water refuge for endangered Florida manatees. Unfortunately, large areas of Kings Bay are currently in a state of ecological degradation characterized by smothering mats of the filamentous cyanobacterium Lyngbya wollei. The causes of this ecosystem shift are not well understood, although it is often suggested that human-caused nutrient loading into the Bay combined with intermittent saltwater intrusions from storm surges may be responsible. In this article, we present results from interviews with local citizens, a review of aquatic plant literature, and research into the history of ecological change in Kings Bay. Our work indicates that management efforts to eradicate invasive exotic aquatic species may also have played an important role in the dominance of L. wollei. We suggest that future restoration efforts should follow a logic of “alternative stable states” that focuses primarily on the recovery of desired ecosystem functions and relaxes the assumption that exotic plants should be minimized. The Kings Bay case study points toward a more adaptive conception of ecological restoration, one informed by local knowledge and open to the utilization of established exotic plants as a tool for maintaining or restoring important ecological attributes.

The morality behind sustainability

The concepts of sustainable agriculture, organic agriculture, regenerative agriculture, and alternative agriculture are receiving increasing attention in the academic and popular literature on present trends and future directions of agriculture. Whatever the reasons for this interest, there nevertheless remain differences of opinion concerning what counts as a sustainable agriculture. One of the reasons for these differences is that the moral underpinnings of a policy of sustainability are not clear. By understanding the moral obligatoriness of sustainability, we can come to understand precisely what must be sustained, and by implication, how. This article discusses the arguments that can be advanced for sustaining anything and initially concludes that our obligations to future generations entail sustaining more than just sufficient food production or an adequate resource base. Indeed, a tradition of care and community must underlie whatever agricultural and resource strategies we are to develop under the rubric of sustainability. A consideration of the larger social and environmental system in which agriculture operates and the constraints this system places on agriculture forces us to recognize that sustainability has to do with larger institutional issues, including our ability to incorporate our common morality democratically into our institutions, practices, and technologies.

Scientific Values and Moral Education in the Teaching of Science

Implicit instruction about values occurs throughout scientific communication, whether in the university classroom or in the larger public forum. The concern of this paper is that the kind of values education that occurs includes reverse moral education, the idea that moral considerations are at best extra scientific if not simply irrational. The (a) moral education that many scientists unwittingly foist on their students undergirds the scientific establishments typical responses to larger social issues: Huff! In this paper I explain the nature of moral education which occurs in the science classroom and argue that it is wrongheadedthough there are remedies for its negative effects.

Agribusiness ethics: Specifying the terms of the contract

Agricultural production in the western world in our time is primarily agribusiness. As such, a business ethics approach can be extended to agricultural production. Given the nature of the agricultural production system, however, not only are general principles for business ethics applicable, but more specific obligations need to be generated. A social contract approach such as Donaldsons, with modifications, serves to provide both the general principles for the ethical practice of agribusiness, as well as more specific obligations for agents in the production system. An analysis of three cases is offered in order to highlight ethical issues particular to agribusiness, as well as to provide content for the principles which the social contract view regarding agribusiness can be seen to generate.

Culture and care: ethical and policy dimensions of germplasm conservation

The very moment when the first human being began to cultivate the soil or tend animals marks the beginning of a great responsibility that we collectively as a species took upon ourselves. Until recently, however, the maintenance of biotic diversity required little active care. The simple activities of farmers and herders have sufficed to insure that nature and all its diversity would remain safe from harm.

Crisis, argument, and agriculture

Scholarly critics such as Wendell Berry, as well as the popular media, frequently refer to problems associated with agriculture as “the agricultural crisis” or “the farm crisis.” Despite the identification of a problem or problems as symptomatic of this “crisis,” scant attention is paid to why the situation is a social crisis as opposed to a problem, tragedy, trend, or simple change in the structure of agriculture. This paper analyzes the use of “social crisis” as applied to the state of modern agriculture and, by extension, other “crises” such as those in legitimation and morality. It concludes that, although important social values associated with “farming as a way of life” may be in danger of being lost, the crisis we may be facing with respect to agriculture is more properly understood as a sociopolitical crisis that has broader implications than simply the loss of farms or traditional farming values. Indeed, what is in danger of being lost is our ability to affect a secure and sustainable political-economic system.

The first European congress on agricultural and food ethics and follow-up workshop on ethics and food biotechnology: A US perspective

The first European Congress on Agriculturaland Food Ethics was held at Wageningen University andResearch Center (WUR), Wageningen, The Netherlands, March 4–6, 1999. This was the inaugural conference forthe newly forming European Society for Agricultural andFood Ethics – EUR-SAFE – and around two hundredpeople from across Europe (and a handful of NorthAmericans) participated. Following theCongress/conference, a small (16 people), two-dayworkshop funded in part by the US National ScienceFoundation focused on similarities and differencesbetween the US and the EU regarding publicdiscourse/debate on food biotechnology. A briefoverview of the Congress and the follow-up workshopsuggests what lessons AFHVS and ASFS might learn fromEuropean experience of agricultural and food ethics.

The Ethics of Agri-Food Biotechnology

Publisher Summary Two main ethical principles have informed the agbiotech debates. These are the utilitarian principle of “maximum social welfare” and the principle of “respect for rights” or autonomy. The most frequently raised issue with agricultural biotechnology has been the potential for GMOs to cause long-term disruption of natural ecological relationships, necessary for sustainable, productive agriculture, and the health of the planet itself. The concern is shared by proponents and opponents of agbiotech; the Earth must be treated in ways that ensures the welfare of present people and future generations. Many critics are unwilling to accept an argument that agbiotech products, despite their test-tube origins, might actually improve health and well-being by positively altering the environment. This is the premise behind the call for scientists and regulators to adopt the so-called “precautionary approach” employed in environmental safety regulation in the European Union. Caution demands either near certainty in environmental assessments, or at least serious consideration of worst-case scenarios. The standard view is that the kinds of rigorous chemical and biological testing of biotechnology products that environmental risk assessment mandates provide adequate grounds for asserting that some biotechnology products are safe.Publisher Summary Two main ethical principles have informed the agbiotech debates. These are the utilitarian principle of “maximum social welfare” and the principle of “respect for rights” or autonomy. The most frequently raised issue with agricultural biotechnology has been the potential for GMOs to cause long-term disruption of natural ecological relationships, necessary for sustainable, productive agriculture, and the health of the planet itself. The concern is shared by proponents and opponents of agbiotech; the Earth must be treated in ways that ensures the welfare of present people and future generations. Many critics are unwilling to accept an argument that agbiotech products, despite their test-tube origins, might actually improve health and well-being by positively altering the environment. This is the premise behind the call for scientists and regulators to adopt the so-called “precautionary approach” employed in environmental safety regulation in the European Union. Caution demands either near certainty in environmental assessments, or at least serious consideration of worst-case scenarios. The standard view is that the kinds of rigorous chemical and biological testing of biotechnology products that environmental risk assessment mandates provide adequate grounds for asserting that some biotechnology products are safe.

Plants, Power, and Profit: Social, Economic, and Ethical Consequences of the New Biotechnologies.

Emerging trends and issues in biotechnology perspectives on science and society from plant breeding to biotechnology the political biology of wheat tomatoes - the making of a world crop new forms of culture - the international scope of biotechnology second nature - the demand for accountability policy matters.