Farmers Engaged in Deliberative Practices; An Ethnographic Exploration of the Mosaic of Concerns in Livestock Agriculture |
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Authors: | Clemens Driessen |
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Institution: | (1) Applied Philosophy Group, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 8130, 6700 EW Wageningen, The Netherlands |
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Abstract: | A plethora of ethical issues in livestock agriculture has emerged to public attention in recent decades, of which environmental
and animal welfare concerns are but two, albeit prominent, themes. For livestock agriculture to be considered sustainable,
somehow these interconnected themes need to be addressed. Ethical debate on these issues has been extensive, but mostly started
from and focused on single issues. The views of farmers in these debates have been largely absent, or merely figured as interests,
instead of being considered morally worthwhile themselves. In this paper the relevance for ethical debates of the ways farmers
discuss and engage with moral concerns is explored. The variety of norms that figure in contemporary farming practices is
sketched in its multifarious complexity, illustrated by ethnographic fieldwork, and systematized in terms of “orders of worth.”
Reviewing the practical arguments and commitments of farmers within this framework reveals that farming practices are subject
to mixed motives, in which an amalgam of types of concerns play a role. Recognition of the peculiarly entangled nature of
the ethics of farming practices could counter the tendency in policy making, technological innovation, and ethical thought
to compartmentalize our moral landscape. Understanding farming practice as the integration of a mosaic of concerns in the
light of a variety of moral experiences would foster public appreciation of positions of farmers in debates on improving the
sustainability and societal acceptability of livestock agriculture. |
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