Agriculture is the lifeblood of the majority of people in Africa. It is not just a provider of food, it is a way of life for rural people. Whilst subsistence farming is the most practiced form of agriculture, there are many parts of Africa where agriculture is highly developed and progressive. In many instances it is the very diversity of agricultural practices that raises complex problems and issues. These issues often manifest themselves in ways that create ethical dilemmas for farmers, policy-makers, academics, politicians and the general lay-person. In particular, the role of biotechnology in African agriculture has become a contentious issue. Some people hold the view that biotechnology will solve the food shortages experienced in many parts of Africa, however, there is an opposing viewpoint that Africa may become a dumping ground for technology that has not been acceptable in other parts of the world. The ethical issues in agriculture in Africa do not focus only on biotechnology. The role of nutrition in the persistence of HIV/AIDS is highly debated and sometimes controversial. Land-related issues also generate heated debates in communities and amongst policy-makers. The single core that runs through all of these and many other related issues is, what are ethically acceptable solutions to these problems? This book attempts, in simple, unambiguous terms, to discuss the most important issues in African agriculture that have an ethical thread.

Agriculture is the lifeblood of the majority of people in Africa. It is not just a provider of food, it is a way of life for rural people. Whilst subsistence farming is the most practiced form of agriculture, there are many parts of Africa where agriculture is highly developed and progressive. In many instances it is the very diversity of agricultural practices that raises complex problems and issues. These issues often manifest themselves in ways that create ethical dilemmas for farmers, policy-makers, academics, politicians and the general lay-person. In particular, the role of biotechnology in African agriculture has become a contentious issue. Some people hold the view that biotechnology will solve the food shortages experienced in many parts of Africa, however, there is an opposing viewpoint that Africa may become a dumping ground for technology that has not been acceptable in other parts of the world. The ethical issues in agriculture in Africa do not focus only on biotechnology. The role of nutrition in the persistence of HIV/AIDS is highly debated and sometimes controversial. Land-related issues also generate heated debates in communities and amongst policy-makers. The single core that runs through all of these and many other related issues is, what are ethically acceptable solutions to these problems? This book attempts, in simple, unambiguous terms, to discuss the most important issues in African agriculture that have an ethical thread.

This book focuses on under-explored and often neglected issues in contemporary African environmental philosophy and ethics. Critical issues such as the moral status of nature, African conceptions of animal moral status and rights, African conceptions of environmental justice, African relational Environmentalism, ubuntu, African theocentric and teleological environmentalism are addressed in this book. It is unique in so far as it goes beyond the generalized focus on African metaphysics and African ethics by exploring how these views might be understood differently in order to conceptualize African environmental ethics. Against the background where environmental problems such as pollution, climate change, extinction of flora and fauna, and global warming are plain to see, it becomes useful to examine how African conceptions of environmental ethics could be understood in order to confront some of these problems facing the whole world. This book will be of value to undergraduate students, graduate students and academics working in the area of African Philosophy, African Environmental Ethics and Global Ethics in general.

This Encyclopedia offers a definitive source on issues pertaining to the full range of topics in the important new area of food and agricultural ethics. It includes summaries of historical approaches, current scholarship, social movements, and new trends from the standpoint of the ethical notions that have shaped them. It combines detailed analyses of specific topics such as the role of antibiotics in animal production, the Green Revolution, and alternative methods of organic farming, with longer entries that summarize general areas of scholarship and explore ways that they are related. Renewed debate, discussion and inquiry into food and agricultural topics have become a hallmark of the turn toward more sustainable policies and lifestyles in the 21st century. Attention has turned to the goals and ethical rationale behind production, distribution and consumption of food, as well as to non-food uses of cultivated biomass and the products of animal husbandry. These wide-ranging debates encompass questions in human nutrition, animal rights and the environmental impacts of aquaculture and agricultural production. Each of these and related topics is both technically complex and involves an – often implicit – ethical dimension. Other topics include methods for integrating ethics into scientific and technical research programs or development projects, the role of intensive agriculture and biotechnology in addressing persistent world hunger and the role of crops, forests and engineered organisms in making a transition to renewable, carbon-neutral sources of energy. The Encyclopedia of Food and Agricultural Ethics proves an indispensible reference point for future research and writing on topics in agriculture and food ethics for decades to come.

The Ethics of Agricultural Intensification: An Interdisciplinary and International Conversation Paul B. Thompson and John Otieno Ouko* Global agriculture faces a number of challenges as the world approaches the second decade of the third millennium. Predictions unilaterally indicate dramatic increases in world population between 2010 and 2030, and a trend in developing countries toward greater consumption of animal products could multiply the need for prod- tion of basic grains even further. Although global food production in 2000 was estimated to be adequate for the existing population, hunger and malnutrition are persistent problems that have led decision makers to recognize that increasing food production in specific regions may be the most effective way to address food se- rity for impoverished peoples. At the same time, there will need to be policy adju- ments that improve poor people’s access to current food supplies without simultaneously undercutting the ability of local producers to obtain needed cash income. What is more, the uncertain effects of global climate change on agricultural ecosystems complicate planning for this process, while poorly understood processes of globa- zation create additional unknowns from the side of social systems. In short, despite surpluses in many parts of the developed world, finding ways to increase food p- duction on both selected regional and a total global basis remains a priority for many farmers, policy makers and agricultural researchers.

This book provides a thorough introduction to and examination of agricultural value chains in Sub-Saharan Africa. First, the authors introduce the economic theory of agri-food value chains and value chain governance, focusing on domestic and regional trade in (and consumption of) food crops in a low-income country context. In addition to mainstream and heterodox thinking about value chain development, the book pays attention to political economy considerations. The book also reviews the empirical evidence on value chain development and performance in Africa. It adopts multiple lenses to examine agricultural value chains, zooming out from the micro level (e.g., relational contracting in a context of market imperfections) to the meso level (e.g., distributional implications of various value chain interventions, inclusion of specific social groups) and the macro level (underlying income, population and urbanization trends, volumes and prices, etc.).Furthermore, this book places value chain development in the context of a process the authors refer to as structural transformation 2.0, which refers to a process where production factors (labor, land and capital) move from low-productivity agriculture to high-productivity agriculture. Finally, throughout the book the authors interpret the evidence in light of three important debates: (i) how competitive are rural factor and product markets, and what does this imply for distribution and innovation? (ii) what role do foreign investment and factor proportions play in the development of agri-food value chains in Africa? (iii) what complementary government policies can help facilitate a process of agricultural value chain transformation, towards high-productive activities and enhancing the capacity of value chains to generate employment opportunities and food security for a growing population.