This book describes the alarming condition of agriculture in the Anthropocene, when the ethical conception of agriculture as a service of common utility for both society and environment has progressively been marginalized. The ethical utility of agriculture has been sidetracked with the increasing industrialisation of society, the involvement of agriculture in the business-as-usual economy, and the consequential environmental and societal impacts it has had. Thus, re-establishing a meaningful bridge between ethics and agriculture is necessary. A relatively new science (ecology) with both a new epistemological tool (that of the ecosystem concept), and a unique narrative of sustainable development, can help bridge this gap.
This book focuses on ethics as a lever for raising scientific, technical, social, economic and political solutions to adopt in agriculture as a model of symbiotic relationships between man and nature. It provides a detailed discussion of the ecological intensification practices in order to maximize ecological and ethical services, wherein agroecosystems will follow.
Author(s): Fabio Caporali
Publisher: Springer
Year: 2021
Language: English
Pages: 281
City: Cham
Preface
Acknowledgements
Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction: Agriculture as if Ethics Mattered
References
Chapter 2: Ethics Structure and Goals
References
Chapter 3: The Emergence of Ecological Awareness
References
Chapter 4: Development of Ecological Awareness
4.1 The Ecosystem Theory
4.1.1 The Ecosystem Concept as a Meaningful Integrative Level in the Hierarchical Organisation of Reality
4.2 The Establishment of the Ecosystem Theory
4.2.1 Research and Education
4.2.2 International Policy and Ecological Economics
4.3 The Ethics of Sustainable Development
4.3.1 Natural Capital, Ecosystem Services and Ecological Footprint
4.3.2 The Role of Education
References
Chapter 5: Agriculture, Ethics, and Sustainable Development
5.1 Agroecosystem Epistemology and Ontology
5.1.1 Energetics
5.1.2 Matter Cycling
5.1.3 Biodiversity
5.1.4 Information
References
Chapter 6: Sustainable Agriculture Through Ecological Intensification
6.1 Site-Specificity and Tradition
6.1.1 Domestication and Adaptation
6.1.2 Contrasting Dismantling Tendency
6.1.3 Terracing for Ecosystem Domestication
6.2 Sustainable Agriculture as a Turning Point of the Human Predicament
6.3 Agroecology as a Transdisciplinary Field of Cooperation
6.4 Ecological Intensification Principles and Practices
6.4.1 Ecological Intensification through Crop Rotation, Intercropping and Multiple Cropping
6.4.2 Ecological Intensification: The Role of Hedgerows
6.4.3 Valuing the Performances of Agroecosystem Ecological Intensification
6.5 Institutional Patterns of Ecological Intensification of Agriculture in Europe: The Role of Universities
6.5.1 Agricultural Education and Research
6.5.2 Indicators of Ecological Intensification in Contrasting Farming Systems
6.5.3 Ecological Intensification in Animal Husbandry
6.5.4 Ecological Intensification of Human Diet
6.6 Ecological Intensification in Theology of Creation and Food Ethics
References
Chapter 7: Conclusions: A New Ecological Ethic for Grounding Sustainability in Agriculture and Society
Afterword
