Ethics and agricultural science : a worldview challenge

Drawing both on his personal experience, as well as on powerful commentaries in the literature, the submission of the author here is that the principles that guide the practices of agricultural scientists are in need of fundamental transformation. The non-normative, objectivist, and reductionist conventions of ‘normal’ positivist agricultural science are held to be inhibiting the capacity of its practitioners to respond responsibly and adequately to a whole host of contemporary challenges of relevance to agriculture - from climate change to the use of rDNA and nano-technologies. It is argued that there is a critical need for the development and adoption of a new, systemic worldview that will provide a much more appropriate conceptual and moral framework to inform the way that agricultural scientists do their work in the active pursuit of the development of ‘better’ more responsible and more sustainable agri-food systems.