Synonyms
Agricultural applications of biotechnology and ethics
Introduction
Throughout history, agriculturalists have propagated plants and animals selectively, allowing those with the most desirable traits – high yield, better taste, and so on – to reproduce. Since the mid-nineteenth century, the advent of systematic knowledge of heredity (the science of genetics) has allowed the development and adoption of more modern breeding technologies. In plant breeding, mutagenesis, where chemicals or ionizing radiation is used for generating more genetic variation in the plant material for the breeder to choose from, has been in widespread use for about a hundred years. Other examples are chemically induced doubling of chromosomes (that may result in larger plants), cloning, and artificial insemination. Echoing developments in other industries, breeding of both plants and animals has also become more specialized, professionalized, and commercial, so much of what once was primarily a matter of...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Ahteensuu M, Sandin P (2012) The precautionary principle. In: Sabine Roeser S, Hillerbrand R, Sandin P, Peterson M (eds) Handbook of risk theory. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1433-5_38
Gregorowius D, Lindemann-Matthies P, Huppenbauer M (2012) Ethical discourse on the use of genetically modified crops: a review of academic publications in the fields of ecology and environmental ethics. J Agric Environ Ethics 25:265–293
Hansson SO (2019) Food labeling. In: Kaplan DM (ed) Encyclopedia of food and agricultural ethics. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-1179-9_317
Lehrman A (ed) (2020) Shaping our food – an overview of crop and livestock breeding. Uppsala
Myskja BK, Myhr AI (2020) Non-safety assessments of genome-edited organisms: should they be included in regulation? Sci Eng Ethics 26:2601–2627. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-020-00222-4
Robaey Z, Timmermann C (2018) Fair agricultural innovation for a changing climate. In: Gilson E, Kenehan S (eds) Food justice, the environment, and climate change. Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham, pp 213–230
Schurman R, Munro WA (2010) Fighting for the future of food: activists versus agribusiness in the struggle over biotechnology. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis
Siipi H (2015) Is genetically modified food unnatural? J Agric Environ Ethics 28:807–816
van den Belt H (2015) Design for values in agricultural biotechnology. In: van den Hoven J, Vermaas P, van de Poel I (eds) Handbook of ethics, values, and technological design. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6970-0_23
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Sandin, P., Robaey, Z. (2023). Modern Biotechnology, Agriculture, and Ethics. In: Poff, D.C., Michalos, A.C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Business and Professional Ethics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22767-8_1256
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22767-8_1256
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-22765-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-22767-8
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Humanities