ABSTRACT
Although environmental philosophers have had little to say about agriculture, environmental critics have not been so reticent. Indeed, the volume of criticism has been so great that it is impossible to even summa& it in less than encyclopedic terms. Critics have found problems with virtually every element of agricultural production and food processing, from center pivot irrigation (see Strange, 1988, pp. 117-12 1) to the use of antibiotics in animal feed (see Schell, 1.974). Since a thorough review of these criticisms is out of place in this context, it will be necessary to select a few examples that illustrate how critics have interpreted the environmental implications of agriculture. Criticisms of agricultural pesticides and of emerging agricultural biotechnologies tend to cite a laundry list of negative environmental impacts associated with agriculture. To the extent that this pattern of criticism is typical, it has three important implications. First, the pattern of criticism makes no philosophical distinction between risk to humans and risk to non-human animals and ecosystem integrity. It is, for this reason, somewhat retrograde by the standards of environmental ethics. Second, by stressing unwanted outcomes, the critics unintentionally reinforce the dominant philosophical orientation of modern industrial agriculture. Finally, the pattern invites farmers and agribusiness to respond by ameliorating practices, rather than by undertaking fundamental reforms.
