Lieske Voget-Kleschin

Balancing virtual land imports by a shift in the diet. Using a land balance approach to assess the sustainability of food consumption. Germany as an example

Nutrition is considered as one of the main drivers of global environmental change. Dietary patterns in particular, embedded in the international trade of foods and other biomass based commodities, determine the dimension of beneficial or harmful environmental impacts of the agri-food sector - both domestically and abroad. In this study we analysed different dietary scenarios from a virtual land flow perspective, based on representative consumption data for Germany in the years 2006 and 1985-89. Further we identified the consumer groups that would have to adapt most to balance Germanys virtual land import and analysed the impact reduced food wastage. For the study, official data sets concerning production, trade and consumption were used. We derived land use data from environmentally extended input-output data sets and FAO statistics. The conversion of agricultural raw products to consumed commodities is based on official processing and composition data. Subgroup-specific intake data from the last representative National Nutrition Survey in Germany were used. We analysed 42 commodities, aggregated into 23 product groups, seven land use types and six nutrition scenarios. The results show that in the baseline scenario the average nutrition in the year 2006 leads to a virtual land import of 707m(2)p(-1)a(-1), which represents 30% of the total nutrition-induced land demand of 2365m(2)p(-1)a(-1). On the other hand, the German agri-food sector exports virtual land, in the form of commodities, equivalent to 262m(2)p(-1)a(-1). In this paper we calculate that the resulting net import of virtual land could be balanced by way of a shift to an officially recommended diet and a reduction in the consumption of stimulants (cocoa, coffee, green/black tea, wine). A shift to an ovo-lacto-vegetarian or vegan diet would even lead to a positive virtual land balance (even with maintained consumption of stimulants). Moreover, we demonstrate that a shift in the average diet profile could lead to maintained or even expanded export competitiveness and simultaneously enable environmental benefits. Since such a diet shift complies with official dietary recommendations, it follows that public health benefits may well result. We show further that a reduction of avoidable food losses/wastage would not be sufficient to level out the virtual land balance of the average nutrition in Germany. Regarding the dietary developments in the last 20years, we argue that a dietary shift resulting in a zero land balance is within reach. The population groups that would have to be addressed most are younger and middle-aged men. Nevertheless, womens land saving potentials should not be ignored neither. Due to the fact that a western-style diet prevails in Germany, we argue that our basic findings are applicable to other industrialised and densely populated countries.

A Sustainability-Fitting Interpretation of the Capability Approach: Integrating the Natural Dimension by Employing Feedback Loops

Combining the Capability Approach (CA) with Sustainable Development (SD) is a promising project that has gained much attention. Recently, scholars from both perspectives have worked on narrowing gaps between these development approaches, with a focus on the connection between the CA as a partial justice theory and SD as a concept embracing justice and ecological fragility and relative scarcity. We argue that to base an SD conception on the CA, the CA must be further developed. To provide the rationale for this claim, we begin by clarifying how we look upon the relation between SD and the CA and how we understand SD (1). We then argue for an integration of the natural dimension in the CA (2). By analyzing similarities of recent contributions integrating the natural dimension, we identify how the CA structure may be developed to include the recursive relation between the human and natural dimensions and especially to include the circumstances of justice relevant to SD (3). Finally, we argue that a new recursive and dynamic CA structure is related to the debate on criteria for ‘valuable’ in the term ‘valuable functionings’ and that this points to an expansion of the CAs evaluative space (4).

Employing the Capability Approach in Conceptualizing Sustainable Development

Abstract While both the scientific discourse on the capability approach and the scientific discourse regarding sustainable development in general, and sustainability theory specifically, are broad and well developed, the two discourses are more or less separated. In this contribution I ask if and how far the capability approach can be employed in developing a conception of sustainable development. To this end, I will draw on a formal framework regarding normative theories of sustainable development, distinguishing two dimensions of sustainable development. Subsequently, I will explore if and how far the capability approach offers substantial answers with regard to the questions outlined in this framework. In so doing, I will distinguish the interpretation of the capability approach by Amartya K. Sen and Martha C. Nussbaum respectively.

The significance of meaning : Why IPBES needs the social sciences and humanities

The term “biodiversity” is often used to describe phenomena of nature, which can be studied without a reference to the socially constructed, evaluative, or indeed normative contexts. In our paper, we challenge this conception by focusing particularly on methodological aspects of biodiversity research. We thereby engage with the idea of interdisciplinary biodiversity research as a scientific approach directed at the recognition and management of contemporary society in its ecological embedding. By doing this, we explore how research on and assessments of biodiversity can be enhanced if meaning, aspiration, desires, and related aspects of agency are methodically taken into account. In six sections, we substantiate our claim that the discourse on biodiversity (including the IPBES (Intergovernmental science-policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services) debate) is incomplete without contributions from the social sciences and humanities. In the introduction, a brief overview of biodiversity’s conceptual history is provided showing that “biodiversity” is a lexical invention intended to create a strong political momentum. However, that does not impede its usability as a research concept. Section 2 examines the origins of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) by way of sociological discourse analysis. Subsequently, it proposes a matrix as a means to structure the ambiguities and tensions inherent in the CBD. The matrix reemphasizes our main thesis regarding the need to bring social and ethical expertise to the biodiversity discourse. In Section 3, we offer a brief sketch of the different methods of the natural and social sciences as well as ethics. This lays the groundwork for our Section 4, which explains and illustrates what social sciences and ethics can contribute to biodiversity research. Section 5 turns from research to politics and argues that biodiversity governance necessitates deliberative discourses in which participation of lay people plays an important role. Section 6 provides our conclusions.

Employing a normative conception of sustainability to reason and specify green consumerism

Two common objections against moral arguments claiming the necessity of individual changes in food consumption encompass first, that the relation between these choices and the predicted harm is indirect and second, that such claims infringe on the individual’s freedom of choice in a way that qualifies as unjust. This paper aims to discuss the contribution of a normative conception of sustainability in rebutting these objections and thus reasoning a moral argument asking for green food consumption.

Employing the capability approach in assigning individual responsibility for sustainable development

The capability approach (CA) gives a static picture of how individual capabilities come about. Sustainable development (SD) deals with societal development, that is, a collective and temporal process. Employing the CA in re-conceptualizing SD thus necessitates accommodating that individual behavior individually and collectively creates feedbacks on natural and social conditions. Acknowledging negative feedbacks of individual behavior on natural conditions allows reasoning the necessity for changing individual behavior. However, since SD constitutes a societal challenge, assigning responsibility for SD to individuals alone overburdens individuals. This contribution argues that employing the CA in re-conceptualizing SD allows explaining the occurrence of such overburden and demonstrating how it can be alleviated.

Landwirtschaft und Ernährung

Wahrend im englischsprachigen Raum insbesondere seit der Grundung der European Society for Agricultural and Food Ethics im Jahr 1999 Entwicklungen hin zu einem eigenstandigen Feld mit Fachgesellschaft, Tagungen und Fachzeitschriften zu beobachten sind, stellt die Beschaftigung mit Ernahrung und Landwirtschaft aus ethischer Perspektive im deutschsprachigen Diskurs (noch) keinen klar abgegrenzten Bereich der angewandten Ethik dar. Sowohl im englischsprachigen als auch – soweit vorhanden – im deutschsprachigen Bereich konzentriert sich die Auseinandersetzung mit ethischen Aspekten der Landwirtschaft auf einige wenige Themenfelder, vor allem auf landwirtschaftliche Tierhaltung und Gentechnik sowie auf Seiten der Ernahrung insbesondere auf Vegetarismus, Verbraucherschutz und Ernahrung als Frage guten Lebens.

Individual Duties Regarding Global Environmental Problems – The Example of Climate Change

There now is a broad theoretical discourse regarding individual duties in which arguments for different kinds of duties as well as actions have been developed. The present paper aims at systematizing this discussion and offers an independent argument that there are duties beyond compliance with and promotion of institutions. The paper starts with some clarifications regarding duties to promote. Subsequently, the main section of the paper addresses the question whether individuals ought to reduce GHG emissions in their responsibility even if these do not contribute to promoting institutions via their communicative value. We first critically discuss objections against such a duty. In a second step, we justify the duty by further developing our so called fair share argument. Subsequently, we clarify the substance of these ‘fair share duties’ and show how they relate to duties to promote. In conclusion, we argue that there are three kinds of complementary, equally important duties: duties to comply with institutions, duties to promote institutions and individual behavioral duties not to exceed one’s fair share of emissions entitlements. The final section locates this tripartite distinction of duties in a framework of different levels of non-ideality.

Ethics and sustainable consumption

The paper provides a philosophical-ethical perspective on sustainable consumption. We start by briefly outlining a concept of SD. This serves as a background for developing an understanding of sustainable consumption as encompassing behavior that reduces pressure on humanity’s environmental and social base of livelihood, that respects other individuals’ ability to live a decent human life and that does not overburden it’s addressees. Subsequently, we introduce the distinction between weak and strong sustainable consumption and argue in favor of the latter. We then turn to (what in our view constitutes) the ethical core issue regarding sustainable consumption: Is it legitimate to claim that individuals need to consume more sustainably? We answer this question in the affirmative and distinguish three equally important, complementary individual duties: duties to comply, to promote and to contribute one’s fair share. Finally, we turn back to the claim that such duties must not overburden individuals. We explain why ethics cannot (exactly) delimit an individual’s duties but stress that this does not yield individual duties the least bit less binding.

Tierethische Maßstäbe zur Beurteilung von landwirtschaftlicher Nutztierhaltung am Beispiel der Haltung von Hühnervögeln

Einige norddeutsche Flächenländer wie Niedersachsen und Mecklenburg-Vorpommern sehen sich seit einigem Jahren mit einem Trend zur Projektierung und Errichtung von Hähnchenmastund Legehennenanlagen konfrontiert, die hinsichtlich ihrer Größenordnung alles bisher Dagewesene sprengen. Dieser Trend geht oft mit großen Herausforderungen für die Kirchengemeinden vor Ort einher. Denn zum einen sind viele Kirchengemeinden selbst Landeigentümer und sehen sich als solche vor die Frage gestellt, ob sie ihr Land an Betreiber entsprechender Großstallanlagen oder deren Lieferanten und Vertragspartner verpachten sollen. Zum anderen aber werden durch solche Vorhaben auch die einzelnen Mitglieder der Kirchengemeinden in tiefe Interessenkonflikte und teils erbittert geführte Auseinandersetzungen verstrickt und stehen sich unversehens als Befürworter bzw. Betreiber oder Gegner industrieller landwirtschaftlicher Tierproduktion gegenüber. Vor diesem Hintergrund formuliert der vorliegende Aufsatz am Beispiel der Hühnerhaltung Kriterien, die für die genuin tierethische Beurteilung solcher Vorhaben von Belang sind. Diese Kriterien sind dabei im Interesse breiter intersubjektiver Vermittelbarkeit argumentativ so justiert, dass ihre Anerkennung nicht mit der Anerkennung bestimmter (schöpfungs-)theologischer Prämissen steht und fällt. Von spezifisch theologischen Voraussetzungen logisch entkoppelt, stehen sie indes einer theologischen Fundierung offen und liefern Einschätzungen, die weithin im Einklang mit nutztierethischen Forderungen stehen, wie sie auch neuere (landes-)kirchliche Positionspapiere oder Synodalbeschlüsse erheben.