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Moral confidence in agriculture

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 October 2009

Robert L. Zimdahl
Robert L. Zimdahl
Affiliation:
Weed Science, Department of Bioagricultural Sciences and Pest Management, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523 ([email protected]).
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Abstract

Those engaged in agriculture possess a definite but unexamined moral confidence or certainty about the correctness of what they do. This paper examines the origins of that confidence and questions its continued validity. The paper argues that those engaged in agriculture are morally confident about the rightness of their activity. The basis of the moral confidence is not obvious to those who possess it or to the public. In fact, the moral confidence that pervades agricultural practice is potentially harmful because it is unexamined. Suggestions for expanding agriculture's moral scope are made to approach the question of where moral values originate, and what are, or ought to be, the moral standards for agriculture in our post-industrial, information-age society. Part of expanding agriculture's moral scope will be giving up some of our hubris about the goodness of our culture and its agriculture. The paper advocates analysis of what it is about our agriculture and our society that thwarts or limits our aspirations for agriculture and needs modification. We must strive to nourish and strengthen those features of our agriculture that are beneficial and change those that are not. To fit ourselves to this task, we must be sufficiently confident to study ourselves and our institutions and dedicated to the task of modifying both.

Keywords

agricultural practicemoral scopemoral values
Type
Commentary
Information
American Journal of Alternative Agriculture , Volume 17 , Issue 1 , March 2002 , pp. 44 - 53
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2002

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