- Paul B. Thompson is Professor Emeritus at Michigan State University, where he was a faculty member in Philosophy, Co... morePaul B. Thompson is Professor Emeritus at Michigan State University, where he was a faculty member in Philosophy, Community Sustainability and Agricultural, Food and Community Ethics. Prior to his retirement in 2022, he was the W.K. Kellogg Professor of Agricultural, Food and Community Ethics at Michigan State. Trained in the philosophy of technology at Stony Brook University, he has held posts at Texas A&M University and Purdue University.edit
- Ph. D. Advisor: Don Ihdeedit
An inclusive and socially legitimate governance structure is absent to address concerns over new agricultural biotechnologies. Establishing an agricultural bioethics commission devoted to inclusive deliberation on ethics and governance in... more
An inclusive and socially legitimate governance structure is absent to address concerns over new agricultural biotechnologies. Establishing an agricultural bioethics commission devoted to inclusive deliberation on ethics and governance in agricultural and food biotechnology is urgent. Highlighting the social and ethical dimensions of current agricultural bioengineering disputes in the food system, we discuss how a nationally recognized policy forum could improve decision-making and increase public understanding of the issues. We clarify ways the concepts that are used to categorize food and frame governance of food affect consumer choices, and how dissemination of information and the mode of dissemination can contribute to social inequities. We cite the record of medically-oriented bioethic commissions and the history of international bioethic commissions in support of our argument, and end by discussing what such a commission dedicated to agriculture and food issues could reasonably be expected to achieve.
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Agricultural ethics is a form of reflective inquiry on norms and goals for agriculture and food systems. It should be distinguished from aspects of common morality that regulate behavior. Violations of the common morality occur in... more
Agricultural ethics is a form of reflective inquiry on norms and goals for agriculture and food systems. It should be distinguished from aspects of common morality that regulate behavior. Violations of the common morality occur in agriculture, but the moral or normative dimension is not controversial. In contrast agricultural ethics is a sustained and systematic form of research on uncertain, disputed or antiquated norms for food systems. The chapter includes a brief discussion on teaching agricultural ethics.
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A letter in Science arguing for a U.S. commission to discuss and review ethical issues in food and agricultural technology.
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A letter in Science arguing for a U.S. commission to discuss and review ethical issues in food and agricultural technology.
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Extended review of "Ethics in the 21st Century" edited by Good paster and Sayer
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This paper is a self description of the impact that my career work has had outside the discipline of philosophy.
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Introduction Biotechnology and Food Food: Safe, Pure, and Wholesome Risk, Safety, and Deliberative Rational Choice Approaches to Food Safety Assessing Risk Risk, Purity, and Consent Risk and Purity Risk and Consent Food Labels Keywords:... more
Introduction Biotechnology and Food Food: Safe, Pure, and Wholesome Risk, Safety, and Deliberative Rational Choice Approaches to Food Safety Assessing Risk Risk, Purity, and Consent Risk and Purity Risk and Consent Food Labels Keywords: agricultural biotechnology
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Lisa Lee’s “A Bridge Back to the Future” (Lee 2017) is a noble effort to connect strands in public health and environmental ethics to mainstream bioethics, and one that is close to my heart. Yet she neglects some obvious components of... more
Lisa Lee’s “A Bridge Back to the Future” (Lee 2017) is a noble effort to connect strands in public health and environmental ethics to mainstream bioethics, and one that is close to my heart. Yet she neglects some obvious components of that bridge that were prominent in Van Potter’s vision. Potter wrote partially in response to work by population ecologists such as Garrett Hardin or Paul and Anne Ehrlich, who were raising ethical questions about growth in human numbers and the planet’s capacity to produce enough food. It was already evident that continued expansion of agriculture would impinge on uncultivated flora and fauna (what we now call biodiversity), while undernutrition and famine were causing a rolling crisis in global public health. These problems are still with us, as a recent article in Science attests (Crist, Mora, and Engelman 2017). In fact, the ethical issues have gotten thornier. Food security in less developed regions is now ironically understood to be most severe among subsistence smallholders—a phenomenon that undercuts the wisdom of responding with gifts of food (Thompson 2015). In the industrialized West, obesity and overconsumption are recognized as key issues in public health, and ethical debates about where to assign responsibility and how to respond are now occurring (Barnhill et al. 2014). The large philosophical literature that advocates for vegetarianism on moral grounds presents further complications, and there are also moral norms of hospitality that have governed more traditional food practices (Boisvert and Heldke 2016). Popular works like Fast Food Nation and The Omnivore’s Dilemma have stimulated a social movement aimed at social and environmental justice via personal dietary choice, and Peter Singer is one philosopher who has offered such advice (Singer and Mason 2007). Lee not only omits the issues, she neglects to mention the work that philosophers have done on food ethics throughout the last four decades. One can scarcely imagine that Lee will object to the suggestion that food topics should be included in her bridge back to the future. I argue a stronger claim: Food ethics has both a centrality and an integrative capacity in a broadened conception of bioethics. As such, the vision that Professor Lee advances will not be achieved if food issues remain off the radar of bioethics. Lee’s bridge needs a vigorous effort to renew the bioethics community’s attention to the production, distribution, and consumption of food. THE CENTRALITY OF FOOD ETHICS
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Greater willingness to engage in ethical dialog over alternative ways to understand the ethics of soil can both clarify soil management goals and sharpen unspoken differences of perspective that may lead to conflict or unintended... more
Greater willingness to engage in ethical dialog over alternative ways to understand the ethics of soil can both clarify soil management goals and sharpen unspoken differences of perspective that may lead to conflict or unintended consequences. The chapter provides a provisional “first draft” inventory of the way that ethical language is used in ways that bear on soil management and stewardship. First, ethical considerations motivate action in three distinct contexts: acts of single individuals such as farmers; collective (but often informal) management of soils as common pool resources; and finally in the justification of public policy. In each of these domains, it is possible to conceptualize soil management as a means or instrument for achieving more fundamental ends, such as fulfilling duties to other people or future generations or finding the optimal distribution of goods and evils in the form of human sustenance and environmental insult. It may also be possible to move beyond ...
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Traditional generic approaches to risk analysis give rise to problems in dealing with aspects of low-probability/high-consequence or high-probability/low-consequence risk. Risk benefit analysis (and other forms of risk assessment) have... more
Traditional generic approaches to risk analysis give rise to problems in dealing with aspects of low-probability/high-consequence or high-probability/low-consequence risk. Risk benefit analysis (and other forms of risk assessment) have concentrated on developing quantifications of risks to health, safety, and property which concentrate on the middle range of risk. Risks of extremely low probability or of extremely low consequence are therefore poorly represented. Attempts to resolve this problem on a generic basis have suffered from difficulties in application and general philosophical justification. As an alternative, a situational approach is recommended.
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There has been little systematic work on the ethics of tree biotechnology. This paper synthesizes some general scholarship on technological ethics and agricultural biotechnology and suggests how it might be associated with tree... more
There has been little systematic work on the ethics of tree biotechnology. This paper synthesizes some general scholarship on technological ethics and agricultural biotechnology and suggests how it might be associated with tree biotechnology. The aim is to identify some current and potential issues for forest biotechnology and to elucidate the ethical assumptions and value commitments that lead people to conflicting opinions about the likely consequences of genetic engineering on trees.
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This is a chapter from The Agrarian Vision
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ABSTRACT Computing and information technology professionals have exhibited high standards of engagement with ethical issues relating to privacy, information security and abuse of the technical capabilities they have been responsible for... more
ABSTRACT Computing and information technology professionals have exhibited high standards of engagement with ethical issues relating to privacy, information security and abuse of the technical capabilities they have been responsible for developing. But one can argue that computing capability is implicated in ethical controversies that receive relatively little discussion within the IT community. Stem cell research, nanotechnologies and other controversial areas of science would be impossible without the computational capacity of information processing. In many instances, the downstream applications of computer technology are deeply involved in the issues surrounding contested technologies.
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These comments raise a number of legitimate points about the relationship between the argument I have offered in “Technological Values in the Applied Science Laboratory,” and the emerging political economy/social constructionist school of... more
These comments raise a number of legitimate points about the relationship between the argument I have offered in “Technological Values in the Applied Science Laboratory,” and the emerging political economy/social constructionist school of thought in the philosophy of science. I think of myself as a cautious proponent of that school, rather than an opponent, and would refer readers to Beyond the Large Farm: Ethics and Research Goals for Agriculture (Boulder,CO: Westview Press, 1991) and to The Spirit of the Soil: Agriculture and Environmental Ethics (London: Routledge, 1994) for more complete discussions of my views on the philosophy of applied science. For the time being, responding to these comments provides a good opportunity to position my original paper within a network.
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The United States 21st Century Nanotechnology R&D Act of 2003 simultaneously directs Federal agencies to undertake research and planning activities that will promote the development of nanoscale science and technology, while... more
The United States 21st Century Nanotechnology R&D Act of 2003 simultaneously directs Federal agencies to undertake research and planning activities that will promote the development of nanoscale science and technology, while also mandating consideration of Societal and Ethical Implications of Nanotechnology (SEIN). The case for nanotechnology is implicit in the first component of this directive, and it is simple and
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An introduction to agricultural land from a philosophical perspective, emphasizing the fact that different social groups have different economic and political interests and asking how such conflicts should be resolved.
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When scientists consider the interaction of science and value judgments, debates often occur. When public policy grows out of science, disagreements between scientists can become even more spirited. This paper examines the case of... more
When scientists consider the interaction of science and value judgments, debates often occur. When public policy grows out of science, disagreements between scientists can become even more spirited. This paper examines the case of nutrition policy in the United States, which has been both at the interface between agriculture and medicine and the object of serious discord concerned with the
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Chapter 1 Introduction A New Yorker cartoon depicts a pair of Puritans in stiff collars, doublets, and cloaks leaning over the rail of the Arbella as it made landfall in the New World. One says, "My immediate goal is to worship God... more
Chapter 1 Introduction A New Yorker cartoon depicts a pair of Puritans in stiff collars, doublets, and cloaks leaning over the rail of the Arbella as it made landfall in the New World. One says, "My immediate goal is to worship God and celebrate His Creation, but ...
Research Interests: Sociology, Earth Sciences, Economics, Philosophy, Political Science, and 10 moreEnergy Policy, Economic Theory, Philosophy Of Economics, Multidisciplinary, Biological Sciences, Philosophy and Religious Studies, Economic Issues, Public Administration and Policy, The Philosophical Quarterly, and Politics of the Life-Sciences
... for and against human cloning, Richard Zaner concludes that only a comprehensive new ethics covering the ... In what way are foods that result from conventional methods of genetic mutation and selection ... for them to do the smallest... more
... for and against human cloning, Richard Zaner concludes that only a comprehensive new ethics covering the ... In what way are foods that result from conventional methods of genetic mutation and selection ... for them to do the smallest thing otherwise than through some law of nature ...
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The article sketches an approach to the basic ethical categories associated with the phenomenon of technological risk, indicating areas of dispute with respect to each category. These categories are then applied to various agricultural... more
The article sketches an approach to the basic ethical categories associated with the phenomenon of technological risk, indicating areas of dispute with respect to each category. These categories are then applied to various agricultural practices.
2022 Addendum: This was one of my earliest publications. Although I still regard elements of this paper as suggestive and useful, it is not a statement of my mature views on its subject matter. The 3rd edition of my book Agricultural and Food Biotechnology in Ethical Perspective develops a framework for linking ethics to risk assessments of agricultural technologies that is relevant to AI, robotics and nanotechnologies, as well as gene transfer.
2022 Addendum: This was one of my earliest publications. Although I still regard elements of this paper as suggestive and useful, it is not a statement of my mature views on its subject matter. The 3rd edition of my book Agricultural and Food Biotechnology in Ethical Perspective develops a framework for linking ethics to risk assessments of agricultural technologies that is relevant to AI, robotics and nanotechnologies, as well as gene transfer.
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This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution. An early ethics assessment method was used to evaluate sustainability goals and early findings from an automated body... more
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution. An early ethics assessment method was used to evaluate sustainability goals and early findings from an automated body scanning technology for swine production. The project had twin goals of discovering potential pitfalls in the technology and exploring the applicability of the method, derived from the Ethical Matrix, as a tool to aid researchers in product design at very early stages in the research and development (R&D) process. This paper reports results on the second objective. Results of the evaluation workshop were coded and qualitatively analyzed. These results are reported and compared; the exercise is compared to the findings of other researchers using more traditional methods for ethical assessment on similar technologies, as well as standard social science methods for ascertaining economic sustainability and social acceptability of technological innovations. We conclude that the method has promise, especially for its applicability at very early stages in R&D, but that it does not substitute for analyses that occur at a much later stage in product or procedural development.
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The article reviews epistemic and ethical dimensions of technical standards, including discussions of the process for standards development and the tripartite structure of standard setting, certification and accreditation of organizations... more
The article reviews epistemic and ethical dimensions of technical standards, including discussions of the process for standards development and the tripartite structure of standard setting, certification and accreditation of organizations involved in developing and auditing technical standards.
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Animal biotechnology can be broadly categorized as encompassing the asexual reproduction of animals through cloning, and genetic transformation of animals through the manipulations made possible through recombinant DNA. The character and... more
Animal biotechnology can be broadly categorized as encompassing the asexual reproduction of animals through cloning, and genetic transformation of animals through the manipulations made possible through recombinant DNA. The character and methods of such manipulations include the creation of ‘knockout’ animals intended to study gene function on the one hand, and also the insertion of genes originally identified in other species, or, colloquially, genetic engineering, on the other. This definition will clearly change and grow with theoretical and technological developments in genomics and systematic biology, but for the time being cloning and genetic transformation represent the main foci of animal biotechnology for the purpose of research ethics. Bernard Rollin’s 1986 paper “The Frankenstein Thing” articulated two ethical principles for animal biotechnology. One was the principle of conservation of welfare, to wit, that applications of biotechnology should result in animals that are ...
Recent social science research on the American public's attitudes toward the welfare of food animals tracks closely with a difficult-to-resolve philosophical issue. One side interprets welfare in terms of the way that a given animal... more
Recent social science research on the American public's attitudes toward the welfare of food animals tracks closely with a difficult-to-resolve philosophical issue. One side interprets welfare in terms of the way that a given animal is faring in a production setting. This view emphasizes the animal's medical condition and cognitive well-being. The other view derives norms for welfare from a conception of what is natural for an animal of a given species. This view presumes that an animal does well when it is living according to its nature. Both of these approaches reflect traditions of ethical thinking that have long histories of application to human and non-human animals, and each appears to have a significant constituency among the public. Each view implies a different approach and different standards for livestock welfare. The fact that this philosophical debate has a history dating back to ancient times suggests that it will not be resolved easily.
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Twentieth century social science developed penetrating analyses of formal and informal institutions on many levels, yet both philosophers and specialists in design have yet to avail themselves of the implications that these analyses have... more
Twentieth century social science developed penetrating analyses of formal and informal institutions on many levels, yet both philosophers and specialists in design have yet to avail themselves of the implications that these analyses have for understanding the ...
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Page 1. Page 2. Sustainability and Environmental Ethics Paul B. ThomPSon Page 3. The Agrarian Vision Page 4. ... Page 5. The Agrarian Vision Sustainability and Environmental Ethics Paul B. Thompson The University Press of Kentucky Page 6.... more
Page 1. Page 2. Sustainability and Environmental Ethics Paul B. ThomPSon Page 3. The Agrarian Vision Page 4. ... Page 5. The Agrarian Vision Sustainability and Environmental Ethics Paul B. Thompson The University Press of Kentucky Page 6. ...
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The paper places arguments for using gene technology to increase the global capacity for food production within the context of earlier innovations that achieved efficiencies, but at great cost to already marginalized groups. Although the... more
The paper places arguments for using gene technology to increase the global capacity for food production within the context of earlier innovations that achieved efficiencies, but at great cost to already marginalized groups. Although the potential for gene technology to achieve benefits should not be neglected, the assumption that it will do so in the absence of measures designed to avoid repetition of these results is irresponsible and naive.
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The global food system exhibits dizzying complexity, with interaction among social, economic, biological, and technological factors. Opposition to the first generation of plants and animals transformed through rDNA-enabled gene... more
The global food system exhibits dizzying complexity, with interaction among social, economic, biological, and technological factors. Opposition to the first generation of plants and animals transformed through rDNA-enabled gene transfer (so-called GMOs) has been a signature episode in resistance to the forces of industrialization and globalization in the food system. Yet agricultural scientists continue to tout gene technology as an essential component in meeting future global food needs. An ethical analysis of the debate over gene technologies reveals the details that matter. On the one hand, alternative regimes for institutionalizing gene technology (through regulation, trade policy, and intellectual property law) could mitigate injustices suffered by politically marginalized and economically disadvantaged actors in the food system, especially smallholding farmers in less industrialized economies. On the other hand, GMO opposition has been singularly effective in mobilizing citizens of affluent countries against policies and practices that lie at the heart of these same injustices. As part of the round table,“Ethics and the Future of the Global Food System,”this essay argues that charting a middle course that realizes the benefits of gene technology while blocking its use in the perpetration of unjust harms may require a more detailed grasp of intricacies in the food system than even motivated bystanders are willing to develop.
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The ethics of food production should include philosophical discussion of the condition or welfare of livestock, including for animals being raised in high volume, concentrated production systems (e.g. factory farms). Philosophers should... more
The ethics of food production should include philosophical discussion of the condition or welfare of livestock, including for animals being raised in high volume, concentrated production systems (e.g. factory farms). Philosophers should aid producers and scientists in specifying conditions for improved welfare in these systems. An adequately non-ideal approach to this problem should recognize both the economic rationale for these systems as well as the way that they constrain opportunities for improving animal welfare. Recent philosophical work on animal ethics has been dominated by authors who not only neglect this imperative, but also defeat it by drawing on oversimplified and rhetorically overstated descriptions of the conditions in which factory farmed animals actually live. This feature of philosophical animal ethics reflects a form of structural narcissism in which adopting a morally correct attitude defeats actions that could actually improve the welfare of livestock in factory farms to a considerable degree.
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An environmental, climate mitigation rationale for research and development (R&D) on liquid transportation fuels derived from plants emerged among many scientists and engineers during the last decade. However, between 2006 and 2010, this... more
An environmental, climate mitigation rationale for research and development (R&D) on liquid transportation fuels derived from plants emerged among many scientists and engineers during the last decade. However, between 2006 and 2010, this climate ethic for pursuing biofuel became politically entangled and conceptually confused with rationales for encouraging greater use of plant-based ethanol that were both unconnected to climate ethics and potentially in conflict with the value-commitments providing a mitigation-oriented reason to promote and develop new and expanded sources of biofuel. I argue that the conceptual construct of technological trajectories provides a fecund approach to the ethical evaluation of R&D strategies in the case of plant-based liquid transportation fuels. The idea of a trajectory has a current use in the literature of science studies and aptly summarizes a number of themes that are critical to the evaluation of tools and techniques whose future shape, design, applications and potential consequences are necessarily somewhat speculative. In the case of biofuels, it is the imagined future trajectory that provides the basis for resistance to an emerging technology, rather than the present-day technical capabilities and the unexpected consequences of biofuel development. Zusammenfassung Die Erforschung und Entwicklung von Biokraftstoffen war im letzten Jahrzehnt maßgeblich durch Umwelt-und Klimaschutzziele motiviert. Gleichwohl gerieten diese Ziele in den letzten Jahren zunehmend in Konflikt mit anderen Initiativen, die die breite Nutzung von Ä thanol aus Ackerpflanzen propa-gierten. Letztere scheinen bei genauer Betrachtung den Emissionsminderungszielen zum Klimaschutz auf konzeptioneller, ethischer und politischer Ebene zu wider-sprechen oder den Zielen zumindest nicht förderlich zu sein. Vor diesem Hintergrund wird ein Trajektorien-Modell zur technischen Entwicklung von Biokraftstoffen
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A noticeable push toward using agricultural crops for ethanol production and for undertaking research to expand the range of possible biofuels began to dominate discussions of agricultural science and policy in the United States around... more
A noticeable push toward using agricultural crops for ethanol production and for undertaking research to expand the range of possible biofuels began to dominate discussions of agricultural science and policy in the United States around 2005. This paper proposes two complementary philosophical approaches to examining the philosophical questions that should be posed in connection with this turn of events. One stresses a critique of underlying epistemological commitments in the scientific models being developed to determine the feasibility of various biofuels proposals. The second begins with a broader set of questions about the philosophical goals of agriculture, then queries the place that a turn to biofuels might have within the philosophy of agriculture. Both are portrayed as viable and important. The paper itself is a preliminary stage-setting reflection on the need for these two types of philosophical inquiry.
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Plant-based transportation fuels were the focus of extended criticism in the press, especially during 2008 when a portion of the blame for a spike in global food prices was associated with growth of the United States' corn ethanol... more
Plant-based transportation fuels were the focus of extended criticism in the press, especially during 2008 when a portion of the blame for a spike in global food prices was associated with growth of the United States' corn ethanol industry. The critique is based on an unsophisticated portrayal of the ethical issues at stake in the food security implications of biofuel. Three ethical critiques can be leveled at the food vs. fuel debate. First, although market drivers of biofuels indeed skew consumption of agricultural grains, this is not a problem that is unique to biofuels. Second, the critique does not reflect an adequate understanding of the way that rising food prices and changes in agricultural technology affect the food security of the poorest people. Third, although rising food prices could be beneficial to poor farm producers among the world's poor, it is unlikely that benefits will materialize in the absence of concerted programs to deliberately select biofuel development strategies that are targeted to strengthen food security for poor and small-holding producers. An adequate agricultural ethics for biofuels will require commitment by both private and public sector biofuel developers to ensure that potentially positive attributes of biofuel development are realized.
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This is chapter 5 of From Field to Fork: Food Ethics for Everyone (Oxford, 2015). It discusses ethical dilemmas that arise in making attempts to improve the welfare of animals being housed in intensive production systems
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The term ‘posthumanism’ has not been promoted by many environmental philosophers, and it is not clear how the figures I discuss would react to be being characterized as posthumanist. It is more typical for advocates of the perspectives I... more
The term ‘posthumanism’ has not been promoted by many environmental philosophers, and it is not clear how the figures I discuss would react to be being characterized as posthumanist. It is more typical for advocates of the perspectives I discuss to characterize them with labels such as ‘non-anthropocentric,’ ‘ecocentric’, or ‘deep ecology.’ Yet, as I will argue, the ideas that have emerged in these lines of thought reflect philosophical commitments that could aptly be characterized as posthumanist.
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These are the uncorrected page proofs for my review of Beth Dixon's book.
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Ransom's manuscript from 1932 has recently been published by Notre Dame press
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This chapter sets out some key features of an agriculturally based environmental utopia. In such a world, the production of food and fiber would be wholly conso-nant with resilient ecosystems, but the idea of a utopia implies more.... more
This chapter sets out some key features of an agriculturally based environmental utopia. In such a world, the production of food and fiber would be wholly conso-nant with resilient ecosystems, but the idea of a utopia implies more. Specifying the requirements for utopia is an inherently philosophical task, so criteria that emphasize resilient ecosystems may suggest a different utopia than criteria of food security, let alone food sovereignty. Furthermore, a full appreciation of the tensions implied by these different value orientations requires more than simply spelling the alternative ways to specify the desirable traits of a utopian society. I will illustrate these tensions by drawing upon the contrast between industrial and agrarian philosophies of agriculture, as outlined in my book, The Agrarian Vision. I will then explore how agrarian philosophical commitments would dictate criteria for a green utopia.
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This draft will appear as a new chapter in a revised edition of my biotechnology book. It provides synoptic overviews on key developments in gene technology since publication of the 2007 edition. Synthetic biology is discussed briefly,... more
This draft will appear as a new chapter in a revised edition of my biotechnology book. It provides synoptic overviews on key developments in gene technology since publication of the 2007 edition. Synthetic biology is discussed briefly, and more attention is given to CRISPrCas9, and gene editing. Both techniques can increase the speed at which a new product would move through the R&D process, and both have the potential to increase systemic linkages between gene technologies for food and agriculture, and gene technology for biomedical purposes. Beyond this, lessons learned from the experience with GMOs continue to be relevant. The framework of novel and normal risk will be a useful amendment to the technological ethics framework developed in earlier editions of this book. Three case studies are discussed: alternative proteins, horizontal environmental genetic alteration agents and gene drives for agricultural pest control. Only the last of these involves truly novel risks. Gene editing refers to a suite of tools and practices in genetic modification that started to be applied in product development around 2010. The suite includes zinc fingers, TALONS and CRISPrCas9, each of which has a somewhat different mechanism of operation. Gene editing followed on the heels of whole genome assembly and synthetic biology. I will argue that in the agrifood sector, experience with GMOs provides a sound basis for approach the ethics of these new methods. We should not presume that even newer methods in gene technology are impossible, nor should we assume that differences in the power or mechanism of these yet-to-be-imagined tools lack ethical significance. Nevertheless, statements on either matter would be speculative at the present juncture. As such, this chapter will concentrate on what unites them under the heading of gene editing, with some brief prefatory remarks on synthetic biology. Synthetic biology has thus far had limited applications in the food sector. Each the three gene editing tools provides the researcher to make a change in a plant or animal genome at a known location in the sequence of base pairs. This chapter will first offer a synoptic discussion of what this ability means in
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This paper was written for a presentation at a conference organized by students at Stanford University in sometime between 2006 and 2008. Parts of of it were used in my published paper, P. B. Thompson, “Food Aid and the Famine Relief... more
This paper was written for a presentation at a conference organized by students at Stanford University in sometime between 2006 and 2008. Parts of of it were used in my published paper, P. B. Thompson, “Food Aid and the Famine Relief Argument (Brief Return),” The Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 23(2010): 209-227. I do not expect to be making further changes to this manuscript, but I would respond to comments from readers as I can.
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This unpublished manuscript is a draft that was significantly modified for inclusion in World Health Organization (WHO)/Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR)/Foundation of the National Institutes of Health... more
This unpublished manuscript is a draft that was significantly modified for inclusion in World Health Organization (WHO)/Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR)/Foundation of the National Institutes of Health (FNIH). The Guidance Framework for field testing genetically engineered mosquitoes. TDR, June, 2014,169 pp. ISBN: ISBN 978 92 4 150748 6 Available at: http://www.who.int/tdr/publications/year/2014/guide-fmrk-gm-mosquit/en/
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Aged, Income maintenance for the Soviet (Porket), 3 (3), 301-23. Ageing, Social construction of, through work: economic structure and life-world (Kohli, Rosenow and Wolf), 3 (1), 23—42. Alternative perspective on retirement: a dual... more
Aged, Income maintenance for the Soviet (Porket), 3 (3), 301-23. Ageing, Social construction of, through work: economic structure and life-world (Kohli, Rosenow and Wolf), 3 (1), 23—42. Alternative perspective on retirement: a dual economic approach (Hendricks and McAllister), 3 (3), 279—99. Asians in Britain, Elderly South: a survey of relevant literature and themes for future research {Mays), 3 (1), 71—97. Britain, Elderly South Asians in: a survey of relevant literature and themes for future research (Mays), 3 (1), 71—97. Care ...
Uncorrected page proofs for a forthcoming paper. The paper is an introduction and overview of work on animals being done by philosophers, written for an audience of ethologists, veterinarians and animal scientists.
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Forthcoming in the Oxford Handbook of Food Ethics
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This is a draft of the response to critics on my book From Field to Fork that was held at the 2016 meeting of the North American Society for Social Philosophy in Ottawa, Canada.
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Bryan Norton takes the debate over weak and strong sustainability to characterize the key conceptual disagreement among attempts to elaborate the idea theoretically. In contrast, I argue that this debate is mired within assumptions of... more
Bryan Norton takes the debate over weak and strong sustainability to characterize the key conceptual disagreement among attempts to elaborate the idea theoretically. In contrast, I argue that this debate is mired within assumptions of economic development theory that fail to recognize how elements of fragility, stability, resilience and adaptive capability within system design or organization have been material to the way that sustainability has been conceptualized in many domains. Two paradigmatic conceptualizations of sustainability compete within the scholarly literature, one stressing the availability of key resource stocks, the other stressing the robustness and resilience of system organization. A better approach would move beyond weak and strong sustainability to acknowledge a deeper and more philosophically potent set of paradigmatic features within sustainability scholarship.
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This short paper is written for presentation at the Central Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association on Saturday, Feb. 26, 2022. It discusses how technological changes induce morally significant shifts in the... more
This short paper is written for presentation at the Central Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association on Saturday, Feb. 26, 2022. It discusses how technological changes induce morally significant shifts in the infrastructure (including property rights) for food system transactions.