ABSTRACT
Part dream, part nightmare, industrial agriculture is a cultural imaginary residing just beyond the boundaries of “official” environmental philosophy. Environmental ethics has emphasized generalized debates over valuation of species, ecosystems and environmental goods. Agricultural science responded with umbrage, shock and disbelief at Carson’s accusations. Despite Carson’s clarion call to reform pesticide use in agriculture in the 1960s, few environmental philosophers have conducted thematic inquiries into the nature and function of agriculture. Agriculture may be thought of as a perturbation of ecosystem processes or as a particularly spectacular example of mutualism in which human populations exist in a symbiotic and reciprocally beneficial relationship with populations of other species.
