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Food and Agricultural Biotechnology in Ethical Perspective

  • Book
  • © 2020
  • Latest edition

Overview

Authors:
  1. Paul B. Thompson

    1. Department of Philosophy, Michigan State University, East Lansing, USA

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  • Updates the most frequently cited source on the ethical issues in GMOs, and genetic engineering in the food system
  • Includes an overview of biotechnology and genetics written for non-specialists
  • Sets the standard for ethical reflection on one of the most contentious technologies of our time

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Table of contents (14 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xxxi
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  2. Biotechnology in the Context of Agriculture and Food: An Overview

    • Paul B. Thompson
    Pages 1-24

  3. The Presumptive Case for Food Biotechnology

    • Paul B. Thompson
    Pages 25-51

  4. Biotechnology, Policy and the Problem of Unintended Consequences: The Case of rBST

    • Paul B. Thompson
    Pages 53-77

  5. Food Safety and the Ethics of Consent

    • Paul B. Thompson
    Pages 79-107

  6. Animal Health and Welfare

    • Paul B. Thompson
    Pages 109-135

  7. Ethics and Environmental Risk Assessment

    • Paul B. Thompson
    Pages 137-165

  8. Environmental Impact and Environmental Values

    • Paul B. Thompson
    Pages 167-192

  9. Social Impact and the Technology Treadmill

    • Paul B. Thompson
    Pages 193-221

  10. Can Agrifood Biotechnology Help the Poor?

    • Paul B. Thompson
    Pages 223-250

  11. Conceptions of Property and the Biotechnology Debate

    • Paul B. Thompson
    Pages 251-286

  12. Religiously Metaphysical Arguments Against Agrifood Biotechnology

    • Paul B. Thompson
    Pages 287-312

  13. Communication, Education and the Problem of Trust

    • Paul B. Thompson
    Pages 313-342

  14. Gene Editing, Synthetic Biology and the Next Generation of Agrifood Biotechnology: Some Ethical Issues

    • Paul B. Thompson
    Pages 343-374

  15. Biotechnology, Controversy and the Philosophy of Technology

    • Paul B. Thompson
    Pages 375-400

  16. Back Matter

    Pages 401-404
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Keywords

About this book

This 3rd edition of Food and Agricultural Biotechnology in Ethical Perspective updates Thompson’s analysis to reflect the next generation of biotechnology, including synthetic biology, gene editing and gene drives. The first two editions of this book, published as Food Biotechnology in Ethical Perspective in 1997 and 2007, were the first comprehensive philosophical studies of genetic engineering applied to food systems. The book is structured with chapter length treatments of risk in four categories: food safety, to animals, to the environment and socio-economic risks. These chapters are preceded by two chapters providing orientation to the uses of gene technology in food and agriculture, and to the goals, methods and background assumptions of technological ethics. There is also a chapter covering all four types of risk as applied to the first US technology, recombinant bovine somatotropin. The last four chapters take up 1) intellectual property debates, 2) religious, metaphysical and “intrinsic” objections to biotechnology, 3) issues in risk and trust and 4) a review of ethical issues in synthetic biology, gene editing and gene drives, the three key technologies that have emerged since the book was last revised.


Authors and Affiliations

  • Department of Philosophy, Michigan State University, East Lansing, USA

    Paul B. Thompson

About the author

Paul B. Thompson is the W.K. Kellogg Professor of Agricultural, Food and Community Ethics at Michigan State University. His career work has integrated the philosophy of technology with environmental ethics through focusing on the role of agriculture and food systems in cultural and normative practices. He has served on advisory boards to the US egg industry and to government agencies in the Netherlands, Canada and the USA. Thompson is the winner of numerous awards and honors including the Don Ihde Prize from Stony Brook University, the Richard P. Haynes Award for Career Achievement from the Agriculture, Food and Human Values Society, the William J. Beal Award for distinguished faculty achievement from Michigan State University and the Award for Excellence in Communication (twice) from the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association. From Field to Fork: Food Ethics for Everyone (Oxford) was the North American Society for Social Philosophy 2015 Book of the Year.


Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Food and Agricultural Biotechnology in Ethical Perspective

  • Authors: Paul B. Thompson

  • Series Title: The International Library of Environmental, Agricultural and Food Ethics

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61214-6

  • Publisher: Springer Cham

  • eBook Packages: Religion and Philosophy, Philosophy and Religion (R0)

  • Copyright Information: Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-61213-9Published: 10 November 2020

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-61216-0Published: 11 November 2021

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-61214-6Published: 09 November 2020

  • Series ISSN: 1570-3010

  • Series E-ISSN: 2215-1737

  • Edition Number: 3

  • Number of Pages: XXXI, 404

  • Number of Illustrations: 1 b/w illustrations, 1 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: Agricultural Ethics, Agriculture

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