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Compiled by EHN-March 2011 Content (linked to respective subjects) Ethics and Professional Ethics Ethics and Morality: the Difference Philosophy and Ethics Ethics and Morality Value & Ethics of Science Agricultural Ethics Farm Structure Animal Ethics Food Safety Environmental Impact International Trade Food Security Agricultural Biotecnology The Ethics of Sustainable Agricultural Intensification Ethics and Professional Ethics What is the different between ETHIC and ETHICS?: An ethic means a principle , while Ethics is the study of moral philosophy. What is ETHICS? Ethics is a branch of philosophy which seeks to address questions about morality; that is, about concepts such as good and bad, right and wrong, justice, and virtue. How do we define PERSONAL ETHICS and PROFESSIONAL ETHICS? personal ethics is subjective; professional ethics is objective Ethics and Morality: the Difference The terms ethics and morality are often used interchangeably - indeed, they usually can mean the same thing, and in casual conversation there isn't a problem with switching between one and the other. However, there is a distinction between them in philosophy! Ethics and Morality: Etymology Morality and ethics have same roots, mores which means manner and customs from the Latin and etos which means custom and habits from the Greek. Robert Louden, Morality and Moral Theory Ethics and Morality: What are they? Strictly speaking, morality is used to refer to what we would call moral standards and moral conduct while ethics is used to refer to the formal study of those standards and conduct. For this reason, the study of ethics is also often called "moral philosophy." Philosophy and Ethics Professional ethics is a branch of the area of study called ethics, which is itself one of the traditional areas of philosophy. review the definitions of philosophy and ethics: philosophy (df.): the area of inquiry that attempts to discover truths involving fundamental concepts, such as the concepts of God, knowledge, truth, reality, the mind and consciousness, free will, right and wrong. [Not all philosophers would agree with this definition of philosophy!] Philosophy and Ethics Philosophy is an area of inquiry (df.): an attempt to discover truths about the world (research) Philosophy” derives from the Greek words for love (philo) and wisdom (sophia). For the ancient Greeks, “philosophy” was love of wisdom. But while this might give us the beginning of an idea of what philosophers do today, we need to get more specific to really understand what modern philosophy is. Ethics and Morality Morality: first-order set of beliefs and practices about how to live a good life. The discipline dealing with what is good or bad. Ethics: a second-order, conscious reflection on the adequacy of our moral beliefs. The discipline dealing with what is good or bad. Morality The quality of being in accord with standards of right or good conduct. A system of ideas of right and wrong conduct: religious morality; Christian morality. Virtuous conduct. A rule or lesson in moral conduct. Philosophy and Ethics Many philosophers (though not all) consider ethics to be one of the four main branches of philosophy, the other three being logic, metaphysics and epistemology. ethics (df.): the area of philosophy that attempts to answer questions involving concepts such as right/wrong, good/bad, moral/immoral, etc. Three Areas of Ethics Ethics itself is divided into three areas: normative ethics meta-ethics applied ethics Normative Ethics Normative ethics (df.): the area of ethics that asks general questions about the morality of behavior; it attempts to provide general moral norms of behavior. normative (df): a normative statement, or question, or theory, concerns how things should be, how they ought to be, rather than how they actually are. the opposite of “normative” is: descriptive (df.): a descriptive statement, or question, or theory, concerns how things actually are, not how they ought to be.] Normative Ethics Normative Ethics So normative ethics is the branch of ethics that tries to answer general questions about how we should behave, how we ought to act. In other words, it attempts to discover general rules or principles of moral behavior. In this area of ethics, you’ll find claims like the following: If doing x will benefit someone without harming anyone else, then it is morally permissible for you to do x. If doing x treats someone as a means to an end without respecting her as a person, then it is immoral for you to do x. Meta Ethics meta-ethics (df.): the area of ethics that tries to answer questions about the nature of morality itself. It does not ask or make judgments about what types of action are moral and immoral; rather, it asks questions like: does morality depend on what we believe about it, or is it independent of our beliefs? does morality depend on what God commands? are moral judgments (statements attributing morality or immorality to a given act, e.g. “Murder is immoral”; “Charity is morally good”) capable of being true or false? or are they simply expressions of emotion? or something else? how can we justify moral claims? how should we justify them? Applied Ethics applied ethics (df.): the area of ethics that asks relatively concrete questions about the morality of specific actions and policies. There are many applied ethics, including Agricultural Ethics that we will discuss later Moral Categories immoral (df.): not permitted by morality; morally bad; in performing the action, you are doing something morally wrong; examples of actions that are generally considered to be immoral are: rape, torturing someone simply because you enjoy causing him pain, and killing someone simply because you find him or her annoying (or for some other relatively trivial reason). Moral Categories morally permissible (df.): permitted by morality; in performing the action, you are not doing anything immoral. There are three sub-categories of morally permissible action: obligatory, morally neutral, and supererogatory: Moral Categories obligatory (df.): required by morality; if you don’t do it, then you’ve done something immoral (for example, saving the life of a baby who is drowning in two feet of water, when doing so would pose no risk to your own life). Moral Categories morally neutral (df.): neither morally good nor morally bad; no moral value whatsoever (for example, tossing a piece of chalk up in the air and then catching it... doing so has no consequences for anyone else and only trivial consequences for yourself; it violates no one’s rights and in fact has nothing to do with anyone else at all). Moral Categories supererogatory (df.): going above and beyond what morality requires; you are not obligated to do it, so in failing to do it, you would not be immoral; but you’ve done something morally good if you do it (for example, saving the life of a stranger who is drowning 100 m from shore, in choppy water, when you have no training as a lifeguard and doing so risks your own life). Value of Science Science is the quintessence of knowledge of human cognition of the objective world. Technology is being and developing mode created by mankind. Science and technology is the driving force and foundation of modern civilization. Value of Science Contemporary scientific revolution has triggered off technological revolution and industrial revolution. the theory of relativity, quantum and cybernetics fueled the development of nuclear , semi-conductor, laser physics and so on, which gave birth to, the development of nuclear energy, industrial automation, IC and IT technology and the relevant industrial revolution. Value of Science Modern science and technology has brought about improvt agriculture, health care and quality of life. IT, life sciences and biotechnology, etc have brought human into an era of global and knowledge-based economy. Modern science and technology has opened a new era of harmonious and sustainable development of human with nature. Modern science and technology is still brewing new breakthroughs, which will bring about revolutionary changes to the future production mode, life style, social structure, etc. meanwhile inevitably giving rise to more ethical and moral issues. IT will continue its developing towards broadband, wireless, intelligence and grid working, and bring about profound impact on the daily life, production mode, commercial and social management, and further boost globalization of information, capital, human resources, production and operation. —— However, problems such as networking fraud, hacker attack, information leakage, data falsification, gambling and illegal dissemination of pornography , etc also come along. Moreover, due to imbalance of information acquisition and application among different countries, regions and individuals, new disparity between rich and poor — digital gap, will occur. Further development of life sciences and biotechnology will bring about new revolutionary changes to agriculture and healthcare. Meanwhile, the advancement and extensive application of industrial and eco-environmental biotechnology will lead to the advent of Bio-economy era . —— However, ethical problems such as individual life code disclosure, difficulty in definition of individual’s social attribution, etc will also rise. Other problems include factitious impact on ecological balance and safety, new threat to human genetic and development health, etc. The Achievements of nanotechnology may further change the industries of information, electronics, manufacture, chemical process, pharmaceuticals, materials and environmental protection etc. —— However, once nanotechnology is extensively applied in various fields, numerous challenges in aspects such as human health, social ethics, ecological environment, etc may appear. Research already show, that some nano powder have special toxicity , nano particles and nano carbon tube may trigger cancer and could penetrate animal’s blood-brain barrier, and the waste disposal of nano materials may bring us to face new problems. If one day nanotechnology is used to make danger weapons, man has yet to find ways and means to protect ourselves. Progress of cognitive science will possibly trigger revolutionary changes for computer, communication, brain/nervous science, and even learning and education, providing more effective means for the well-being and development of human brain and neural system, and the prevention and cure of mental diseases. —— However, improper use of cognitive science may lead to control of man’s behavior, sensibility and thought such as psychological inducement, cognition inducement, etc and cause serious ethical problems such as illegal infringement on human rights such as privacy and self-determination of behavior, etc. Combination of information technology and life sciences with biotechnology, nanotechnology, cognitive science and mathematics / system science will find new, effective and simple mathematic tools and methods to understand matters, life and human cognizing process, and possibly trigger off new scientific and technological revolution. —— However, this may also bring about new knowledge gap and imbalance of development. Advanced and extensive application of space technology (GIS,GPS,RS) has expanded human’s visions of cognition, promoted developing the earth, resource and environmental science, provided the technological support for agriculture, monitoring the eco-environmentals, forecasting climate change and natural disaster, and creation of a digital earth. —— but under modern space supervision, it’s difficult to keep individual privacy and confidentials of commercial information, so countries possessing space supervision technologies inevitably have information advantages, thus causing new ethical problems such as dissymmetry of information, unfair of development, etc. As fortune created by mankind jointly, science and technology has the characteristics of accumulation, sharable and re-creation. It should benefit all mankind. Meanwhile, we should clear realize that science and technology is also a double-edged sword, once misused, it may endanger natural ecosystem, human rights, life in the earth, and harmonious and sustainable evolution between human society and nature, thus causing further unfair, insecurity, disharmony, no sustainablility, and even man-made disasters. Scientific ethics that mankind should all abide Scientists and engineers should not only have the interest and passion for creation, but also shoulder the social responsibility. In S&T innovation, we should respect life (including that of mankind and other life). In S&T innovation, we should respect the human rights fairly (including that among not just the contemporaries but also the different generations). In S&T innovation, we should respect dignity of human (including those of different ethnic groups, genders, ages and with different beliefs). In S&T innovation, we should respect nature, protect eco-systems and environment, and realize harmonious coexistence and sustainable evolution between man and nature. Commonality between ancient oriental philosophy and modern scientific ethics 2500 years ago, the Chinese philosopher Confucius (551 BC — 479 BC) put forward the following ethical norms: •treasure life •treat people equally •respect each other •encourage creation •be faithful and trustable Ancient oriental philosophy attaches importance to the unity of heaven and man, harmonious coexistence between man and nature. Confucius (551 BC － 479 BC) said, “Without recognizing the ordinances of Heaven, it is impossible to be a superior man” (The Analects· Yao Yue)， in which “ordinances of Heaven” means the rule of nature. Lao Tzu (around 571 BC－ 471 BC) once said, “Tao models itself after the nature” (The Classic of the Way and virtue), highlighting the necessity of abiding by the rule of nature. Ancient oriental philosophy attaches importance to the unity of heaven and man, harmonious coexistence between man and nature. Zhuang Tzu (around 369 BC － 286 BC) once said, “There is nothing superior; there is nothing inferior” (Zhuang Tzu · Discussion on Making All Things Equal)，requesting to treat all things in the universe equally. Mencius (around 372 BC － 289 BC) asserted “loving people and treasuring things”(Mencius·Doctrine of Extending Affection), treating people kindly and loving the nature. It is not scientific and technological development itself but just improper use that accounts for some ethical problems arising along with scientific and technological development. Man should by no means give up or restrict scientific and technological development in the excuse of ethnics. ——Exploring the unknown world, innovating production mode and lifestyle and preserving the eco-environment are everlasting drive for scientific and technology. ——Science and technology is the inexhaustible source and driving force for progress of human civilization. ——It is the common social responsibility for scientists and engineers to develop science and technology to promote the welfare of human beings. ——The combination of scientific spirit and humanistic spirit will inevitably help to establish new ethical norms following science and technology developing. We are convinced that so long as Scientists, Engineers and other peoples of all countries work hand in hand to face common challenges, enhance exchange and adequately cooperate each other, we will be able to create a more promising future for mankind! Ethics is about choices, and agricultural ethics is about choices for people engaged in agriculture either directly as farmers, or indirectly as government regulators, extension agents, researchers, CEOs, industrial workers, lawmakers, technology developers, consumers, or protestors. Role of Ethics in Agriculture Ethics is a systematic and critical analysis of morality, of the moral factors that guide human conduct in a particular society or practice. As agriculture represent an interaction between humans and the aquatic ecosystem, agriculture ethics deals with the values, rules, duties and virtues of relevance to both human and ecosystem well-being, providing a critical normative analysis of the moral issues at stake in that sector of human activities. Agric. Ethics Agriculture has a long history. Starting approximately 12,000 years ago, the domestication of plants and animals began independently in several different places, including centers in West Asia, East Asia, Central America, and South America. Domestication also may have occurred in other locations, although convincing archeological evidence has not been found. In the domestication process, humans manipulated animals, plants, and the environment in various ways to increase the availability of the desirable species and desired traits of these species Agric. Ethics It is less widely known that religious, political, and philosophical reflection on agriculture and the environment also has a long history The fundamental value of agriculture was highlighted by Enlightenment thinkers from John Locke to Thomas Jefferson, who underscored the political, economic, and philosophical importance of “tillers of the soil” In the late twentieth century, systematic thinking about the values and norms associated with the food system— farming, resource management, food processing, distribution, trade, and consumption—came to be referred to as agricultural ethics. Agric. Ethics Agricultural ethics incorporates elements of philosophical ethical analysis with concerns about particular issue areas that arise in connection with the food system. Many issues associated with the food system arise from actions that are justifiable from the perspective of one ethical theory but clearly wrong from the perspective of another This is why they are referred to as issues: situations in which some people’s positions or arguments about what constitutes the right or wrong thing(s) to do are at variance with, and in conflict with, other people’s arguments. focus of agricultural ethics as issues in the food system farm structure, animal ethics, food safety, environmental impacts, international trade, food security, agricultural biotechnology, research ethics, public trust in science, the process of institutionalizing agricultural ethics. FARM STRUCTURE Farm structure refers to the general social and economic features of agriculture in a given society. It includes elements such as the average size of farms, relative market shares of different-sized farms, numbers of people employed in farming, and whether or not farms are owner-operated. There are many causes of structural change. Improved farm technology allowed farm size to grow while improving efficiency and productivity. Better transportation allowed access to markets far from the farm gate. ANIMAL ETHICS The use of animals in agriculture raises many ethical issues. A few of the questions raised by the practice of producing animals for food are the following: how long will the Earth’s natural resources be able to sustain an industrial agricultural system devoted to high-volume, low-cost, monoculture production of animal feedstuffs? To what extent will animal producers pay for environmental externalities such as soil erosion and loss of biodiversity in rangeland? ANIMAL ETHICS Answers to these questions will depend, in large part, on one’s views about the moral status of animals and humans’ responsibilities. For example, we may do whatever we please to animals; animals have value only as means to human ends, either because animals are not sentient (it is believed) or because they lack consciousness. Ethical issues in animal production arise only in contexts such as resource use or environmental impacts. ANIMAL ETHICS Animals can be harmed just as people can, and they can be benefited as well. Utilitarian ethics demands that we attempt to achieve a balance of humans’ and animals’ benefits and harms. Accordingly, genetically engineering “happy” farm animals may be ethically required. FOOD SAFETY Food safety is an ethical issue in part because, in the modern food production-transportationprocessingwholesaling-retailing chain, foods can be exposed to chemicals or microbial pathogens, or simply can be mishandled. In addition, the food system is not transparent; that is, consumers on their own may not know or be able to tell whether the foods they purchase and eat will put them at risk for sickness or disease or even allergic reactions. FOOD SAFETY The complexity and lack of transparency of the production system leads to the need for agencies such as public health departments, to play an important role in ensuring food safety. On this view, governments have an ethical responsibility to ensure that rights are not violated and that food is therefore safe. But, determining food safety is not simple: “safe” implies a value judgment that potential hazards have been adequately analyzed and that any remaining risks are “acceptable” FOOD SAFETY Some people have called for implementation of a “precautionary approach” in food safety assessments (as well as in environmental risk assessments), which would place stricter demands on regulators. The precautionary approach would require that risk analyses be exhaustive; products being evaluated would be deemed “safe” only if it could be determined that there are no risks associated with the use or consumption of the product. Issues pertaining to the potential negative impacts of certified “safe” foods on certain groups (e.g., children or highly allergic individuals) also have been raised. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS Together with managed forests, crop agriculture and animal production dominate human-managed ecosystems on both a national and global scale. Along with that domination come the tremendous environmental impacts that agriculture has had and continues to have. These environmental impacts fall into three general areas of ethical concern. three general areas of ethical concern in environment. 1. Agricultural production practices can have toxic effects through organic wastes and chemical pollution, which can affect nontarget organisms, leave chemical residues on food, and expose farm workers and other human beings to harm. 2. Agricultural use of soil, water, and genetic resources can be wasteful. 3. Agriculture has a range of effects on wild organisms and natural ecosystems that goes beyond the direct effects of exposure to chemical toxins e.g: do transgenic crops have unwanted environmental impacts ? ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS Although most people would agree that these questions raise ethical concerns, difficult philosophical issues arise in attempting to articulate a response. Questions of acceptable risk, and norms for weighing the degree and distribution of risks against benefits, are central in each issue. As is the case with food safety, tensions arise between utilitarian- and rights-oriented approaches to risk. In addition, wasteful practices and effects on wild areas might be understood as ethically significant by virtue of their effects on the rights or welfare of future generations. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS Alternatively, some people believe that humans have obligations of stewardship and respect for nature that go beyond any use human beings will ever make of natural resources. Debates over the environmental impact of transgenic crops have raised anew the question of just what is an unwanted environmental impact (UNFAO 2001). Whether transgenic crops might provide environmental benefits over traditional cultivars also is relevant here. INTERNATIONAL TRADE There long have been questions about the fairness of the conditions of international trade, especially between richer and poorer nations (countries) Most current ethical questions focus on the institutional arrangement under which global trade now is conducted—the World Trade Organization (WTO). Membership in the WTO implies that a nation agrees to abide by WTO rules concerning labor and production practices, environmental regulations, upholding of patent protections, and the adjudication of trade disputes. INTERNATIONAL TRADE The WTO negotiations, rules, and sanctions clearly have ethical overtones. The existence of the WTO itself also has been subject to challenges: certain lesser-developed countries (LDCs) see the organization as a tool for developed country’s corporations to gain/maintain control over their internal political and economic arrangements. FOOD SECURITY Food security is an umbrella term that covers a wide variety of issues. At its most basic level, food security notes that having enough food is a basic need for all human beings, and that threats to the food that people need to survive are among the most basic problems human beings have faced since antiquity. The phenomenon of hunger continues to be an important topic for agricultural ethics, as well. For example, what moral obligations do people who are relatively well-off have to those who are less well-off? AGRICULTURAL BIOTECHNOLOGY The development of recombinant DNA techniques for transforming agricultural plants and animals, as well as for food processing and animal drugs, has been the focus of controversy for more than 25 years Agricultural biotechnology is debated in terms of food safety and consumer consent, the broader environmental effects of its use in crop and livestock production, its impact on the structure of agriculture, and its potential to address problems of hunger on a global basis AGRICULTURAL BIOTECHNOLOGY Each of these issues might be raised with respect to many technologies that affect yields or production practices in the food system. RESEARCH ETHICS Within many domains of science, research ethics has focused primarily on human subjects and informed consent, and secondarily on the use of animals as research subjects. Whereas the first concern has not affected agricultural researchers, the second one has. RESEARCH ETHICS Research ethics is coming to be seen in terms of the broader steering of and control over the research agenda and the proper role of self-interested actors (such as corporations) in supporting public-sector scientific research. In agricultural research, these ethical issues concern the appropriate way that food consumers, citizens, and other food system outsiders should have their values reflected in the development of agricultural production practices, especially as these practices are affected by new technology. TRUST IN SCIENCE Agricultural science is a communal process devoted to the discovery of knowledge and to open and honest communication of knowledge. Its success, therefore, rests on two different kinds of values. TRUST IN SCIENCE Epistemological values are values by which scientists determine which knowledge claims are better than others. The values include clarity, objectivity, capacity to explain a range of observations, and ability to generate accurate predictions. Epistemological values in science also include fecundity, or the ability to generate useful new hypotheses; simplicity, or the ability to explain observations with the fewest number of additional assumptions or qualifications; and elegance, or scientific precision. TRUST IN SCIENCE Personal values, including honesty and responsibility, are a second kind of values—those that allow scientists to trust the knowledge claims of their peers. If scientists are dishonest, untruthful, fraudulent, or excessively self- interested, the free flow of accurate information essential to science will be thwarted. If a scientist plagiarizes the work of others or uses fabricated data, that scientist's work will become shrouded in suspicion and otherwise reliable data will not be trusted. If scientists exploit those who work under them or discriminate because of gender, race, class, or age, then the mechanisms of trust and collegiality that underlie science, and provide science with its a priori ethical justifiability, will be eroded INSTITUTIONALIZING AGRICULTURAL ETHICS? Ethical concerns have always been important in agriculture. However, that ethics has not always been given an explicit place in the structure of organizations dedicated to agricultural leadership, decision making, education, and research. INSTITUTIONALIZING AGRICULTURAL ETHICS? The most direct strategy for institutionalizing ethics is for everyone in the food system to begin to include some consideration of ethics in the actions, decisions, and policies they create or support. This strategy means that farmers, scientists, research administrators, regulators, and decision makers at the highest levels routinely would reflect on the ethical rightness or wrongness of their own actions and decisions, as well as those of others; engage in debate as appropriate; and, ultimately, try to act ethically. Agricultural intensification Agricultural intensification can be technically defined as an increase in agricultural production per unit of inputs (which may be labour, land, time, fertilizer, seed, feed or cash). For practical purposes, intensification occurs when there is an increase in the total volume of agricultural production that results from a higher productivity of inputs, or agricultural production is maintained while certain inputs are decreased (such as by more effective delivery of smaller amounts of fertilizer, better targeting of plant or animal protection, and mixed or relay cropping on smaller fields). An ethics framework The word “ethics” refers to principles or standards that define behaviour, action or rules for action that is considered to be right, good and proper. A framework for organizing the enormous variety of ethical standards that have served in this role throughout human history can be developed from a simple schema of human action. Individuals, associations or the designated agents of organizations can each be characterized as actors (see figure of next slide), ELEMENTS OF HUMAN ACTION An ethics framework Actors considering or initiating action do so under three kinds of constraints that determine which action or behaviour is possible constraints determine the physical universe of possibility limits of possible actions represent technology. law and policy limit the universe of possible behaviour and action that an actor will consider. individuals and associations limit the universe of possible alternatives for action. When is intensification ethically good? Utilitarian ethics Agricultural intensification is a process that occurs when individual human beings, communities or organizations take actions of one sort or another. Rights-based ethics A rightsbased approach to intensification is more concerned as to whether the actions that result in higher food production are consistent with these rights and duties than in their eventual effect on human welfare. When is intensification ethically good? Utilitarianism and rights-based ethics The basic tension between utilitarian consequentialism, on the one hand, and rightsbased ethics, on the other, underlies many issues associated with agricultural intensification. Researchers have used the germplasm in breeding programmes to develop higher-yielding varieties as well as searching for other valuable genetic traits. From a utilitarian viewpoint, the increased yields of new varieties more than justified the collection of germplasm, and researchers saw no ethical issue in using seeds they had collected this way. However, critics asserted that researchers had failed to show proper respect for the rights of indigenous farmers whose forebears had saved seed for centuries. To be continued…….
