The Agrarian Vision by Paul B. Thompson

Author:Paul B. Thompson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The University Press of Kentucky

CHAPTER 8

Sustainability and the Social Goals of Agriculture

In a 1983 essay on research and development policy, agricultural economist James T. Bonnen states: “Changes in society's values and social agenda, in part the consequence of externalities to agricultural policy and production, will remain an important source of disequilibria. This will require not only social science, physical and biological science, but also humanities research on the ethical and value choices that must be made.” Bonnen's view was particularly enlightened and prescient not only for its recognition of the importance of ethics and values in technology policy but also for his suggestion that the humanities could and must contribute to what we now call “sustainability science.” Many social and natural scientists who are inclined to agree with Bonnen might still think of values and ethics as arising from the misty depths of individual subjectivity, a region so alien to the methods of economics and physical sciences that we might as well call on the humanities, perhaps as a last resort. Although the overall purpose of this book is to respond positively to this call for a humanities approach to the question of sustainability, the message of this chapter is that even philosophers would do well to notice the account of agriculture we derive from the social sciences in order to understand sustainability.

Agriculture is a human activity that takes shape through interaction with nature and with the rest of the society in which it is practiced. All but the most rudimentary of human societies have had an agricultural component, and even hunter-gatherers practiced forms of environmental management, whether they were consciously aware of doing so or not. Although the practice of agriculture is a virtually universal component of all human societies, the purposes, goals, and adaptations that a given society is able to achieve through agriculture are quite variable. If we are to say anything helpful about the agrifood system's contribution to sustainability, we must have a clear sense of the possible purposes, goals, and adaptations it makes available. We must also understand that the goals of the agrifood system may not be mutually compatible or mutually shared by all Americans. The likelihood that we will perceive agriculture's role differently is what Bonnen refers to as “the ethical and value conflicts in the choices that must be made.”

The thesis of this chapter combines two themes. First, the notion of moral value or duty derived from an introspective look at our own thought processes provides an inadequate basis for understanding the sense in which sustainability is a social goal. The focus here is on social goals rather than sustainability as such, and I examine how the agrifood system can be seen to have social goals. Second, an analysis of the social goals for any social subsystem, such as the agrifood system, depends on a comprehensive understanding of the natural and social systems in which human activities are practiced and reproduced. An analysis of sustainability demands a systems perspective. My strategy for elucidating the concept of a social goal is to review a series of proposals for stipulating social goals for agriculture.

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