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This open access collection of new interdisciplinary essays discusses philosophical and social implications of new biotechnologies, methods, and tools used in agriculture from a multispecies perspective. Contributors employ philosophy, sociology, and history of agriculture; agricultural ethics; philosophy of science; and science and technology studies to investigate agricultural research, farming practice, and agricultural policy. Chapters explore and critically discuss how mechanical, chemical, and genetic interventions reshape ecological relationships and agricultural knowledge by relying on case studies of interspecies interactions across different agriculturalized landscapes. These include careful examinations of the nature of dynamic causal relationships across microbial, macrobial, megaflora and faunal organismal communities; exploration of specific coevolved species of pollinators and field crops; and analyses of the epistemic and normative commitments that guide crop management decisions and shape methodological choices leading to the reengineering of land use. These analyses and case studies are intended to provide readers with a variety of conceptual tools through which the use of agricultural technologies might possibly be understood and debated.
List of contents
Chapter 1: Introduction: Technological innovations in agriculture: a philosophy and sociology of science approach.- Chapter 2: What is soil, and what is it for? Social ontologies and social epistemologies of soil affordances and soil experiments.- Chapter 3:Dreaming the Butterfly: Engineered Ecologies and Fragile Futures.- Chapter 4: Agency and Relationships in Engineered Agricultural Ecologies.- Chapter 5: Treading Lightly, Agriculture, and Focality.- Chapter 6: Reframing Gene Editing in Crops: Unpacking Potential Solutions by Reconsidering the Questions Asked.- Chapter 7: Unpacking public engagement in agricultural biotechnology: the role of narratives and social epistemology in a deliberative workshop on gene editing in agriculture and food.- Chapter 8: A Risk-Based Agricultural Biotechnology Ethics in the Era of Gene Editing: What is New and What Is Not.
About the author
Catherine Kendig is Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Michigan State University and Affiliated Faculty in the Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior Program, Michigan State University. She earned her Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Exeter, ESRC Center for Genomics in Society/ Department of Sociology and Philosophy; MSc in Philosophy and History of Science from King’s College London; and MA in Philosophy, Social Policy, and Ethics from American University. Before joining Michigan State University, she held posts in the Department of Science and Technology Studies, University College London, and the Department of Philosophy and Religion, Missouri Western State University. Her research investigates the ontological, epistemological, and normative commitments underlying scientific, local, and ethnobiological classifications. Kendig’s research in philosophy of agriculture, philosophy and history of biology, and philosophy of synthetic biology is supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, “Social Implications of Emerging Technologies in Agriculture” (Grant #2020-67023-31635), and the National Science Foundation, “Epistemic and Ethical Functions of Categories in the Agricultural Sciences” (Grant #2240749).
Professor Paul B. Thompson was the inaugural occupant of the W.K. Kellogg Chair in Agricultural, Food and Community Ethics at Michigan State University from 2003 to 2022. He now serves as emeritus faculty in the departments of Philosophy, Community Sustainability and Agricultural, Food and Resource Economics. He received his Ph.D. in Philosophy from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and has held posts at Texas A & M University and Purdue University. Thompson’s research and teaching has focused on ethical and philosophical topics in food and agriculture. He is the author or co-author of over two hundred articles in refereed journals or scholarly books. His book From Field to Fork: Food Ethics for Everyone was published by Oxford University Press in 2015. It won the “Book of the Year” award for 2015 from the North American Society for Social Philosophy. His book The Spirit of the Soil: Agriculture and Environmental Ethics was released in a revised and updated second edition in 2017.
Summary
This open access collection of new interdisciplinary essays discusses philosophical and social implications of new biotechnologies, methods, and tools used in agriculture from a multispecies perspective. Contributors employ philosophy, sociology, and history of agriculture; agricultural ethics; philosophy of science; and science and technology studies to investigate agricultural research, farming practice, and agricultural policy. Chapters explore and critically discuss how mechanical, chemical, and genetic interventions reshape ecological relationships and agricultural knowledge by relying on case studies of interspecies interactions across different agriculturalized landscapes. These include careful examinations of the nature of dynamic causal relationships across microbial, macrobial, megaflora and faunal organismal communities; exploration of specific coevolved species of pollinators and field crops; and analyses of the epistemic and normative commitments that guide crop management decisions and shape methodological choices leading to the reengineering of land use. These analyses and case studies are intended to provide readers with a variety of conceptual tools through which the use of agricultural technologies might possibly be understood and debated.
