InkLinks

Paul Thompson’s lead article (“Agriculture and Food Issues in the Bioethics Spectrum”) argues that bioethics has addressed only a narrow range of the large set of ethical issues in agriculture. InkLinks contributors this month echo and expand those sentiments.

InkLinks is a regular column in which readers reflect on issues related to the lead article. It is meant to tap the rich intellectual resources that this network provides. We welcome your contribution.

—JA

The Philosophy Department:
We’re Reaching Out

The Philosophy Department has extended the reach of its practical ethics program to include topics in development ethics, many of them involving agriculture. Our partners in this have included faculty from the College of Human Medicine, the College of Social Science and the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. The result is an exciting set of new curricular and research activities. Let me mention just a few specific topics to highlight the important relationships between ethics, international development, and agriculture.

Perhaps the first thing to note is the central importance (and often the unwise neglect) of agriculture for development in the poorest nations of the world. It is now clear from experience that manufacturing and industrial development alone do not address the deep and persistent deprivation that exists in these developing countries. Only when efforts are made to improve agricultural production in appropriate ways by creating new capacities among small landholders and villagers do we see positive and sustained changes along other key vectors of well-being such as health and education. Agricultural international development, not surprisingly, involves many complex ethical questions as well as social and technical challenges. For example, what is the appropriate way for developing countries to utilize new genetic engineering technologies to respond to food shortages and low agricultural yields? That is, what is the appropriate institutional mechanism for addressing this vexing question in developing countries? Should national ethics review commissions be established? Should public-private partnerships between seed companies, drug companies, and government ministries be empowered to oversee this process, and will they be mindful of the effects of introducing this new technology on the patterns of land ownership? Another critical issue is the interaction between agricultural development and gender inequality in developing countries. For example, should donor organizations structure aid to build agricultural capacity and at the same time address the particular disadvantages that women, including young school-age girls, face in many developing countries?

Agricultural development, education for young girls, the survival of small landowners, the risks of genetically modified (GM) crops to future generations; these are just a few of the many inter-connected ethical issues that developing nations face. Faculty and graduate students at MSU are now planning a week-long conference in early April 2005, co-sponsored by the International Development Ethics Association, to discuss these and other issues. It also will be the occasion to kickoff a new interdisciplinary doctoral specialization in ethics and development with Philosophy as the lead department and reaching out to faculty and graduate students across the university.

Stephen L. Esquith, Ph.D.
Chair, Department of Philosophy

A Sociologist: Look at Institutions, not just Individuals

Many of the ethical issues concerning agriculture and food are not about the behavior of individuals, but of organizations and institutions. For example, labeling of food products is usually based on the argument that people have a right to know what they are consuming. But in many instances, there is little agreement as to what information labels should contain. Proponents of GM labeling, for example, argue that consumers should be able to choose whether to consume genetically modified foods. Opponents argue that if there is no known harm, then labeling is unjustified and merely raises the cost of the product. Moreover, given that food labels are of limited size, it is impossible for all information deemed relevant by some consumers to be included.

Another group of ethical issues surrounds food standards. For example, the US requires that imported fruits and vegetables be free of exotic insects that might gain a foothold in this nation. To conform to that standard, producers in exporting countries might be encouraged to spray rapidly degrading insecticides. By the time the product reaches the US, it would have little or no pesticide residue and no insect infestations. However, at the same time, it might well mean that farmworkers have been exposed to harmful fumes from those same pesticides.

Subsidies to United States and European Union farmers for production of various commodities provides yet another group of ethical issues. Such subsidies are usually justified as supporting farm incomes and farm communities. Subsidies have lately become a point of friction in international trade debates, since they also depress the prices of agricultural commodities received by poor farmers in developing nations. Those farmers, who receive no subsidies, also lack the capital and other resources available to their US counterparts.

Lawrence Busch, Ph.D.
University Distinguished Professor of Sociology