Preface

When we met with our coedito rs and repr esentativ es of Sp ringer in May 2010 to begin conce ptua lizing the En cycloped ia of Food and Agricult ural Ethics , w e were thinkin g along the lines of someth ing that would be a cross betwee n a traditi onal general -interest encyc lopedia and a “handbo ok.” We envisio ned a work that would help scholar s and relative ly advanc ed stud ents obtain a quic k introdu ction to the iss ues and the publishe d lite rature that was most relevan t t o a broad range of iss ues in the ethics of food and agricul ture. We took “ethic s” to imply thoughtful and scholar ly studies on the normat ive dimens ion of topics rather than rubr ics or remonst rations on right action. We wan ted to crea te a reso urce for those interest ed in lea rning more about the ethica l dimens ion of food and agricultu re rather than a collection of argumen ts for partic ular ethical posi tions.

All areas in prac tical ethics suff er from a deep amb iguity of this kind. On the o n e hand, for many peopl e, ethics simply implies an uncom plicated matter of doing the right thing. “Bein g ethica l” would be understo od in contras t t o blatantl y unethic al act ions such as the intent ional contamina tion of Chinese milk produc ts (inclu ding infant formula) with melamine in 2008. No one needs scholar ly researc h t o under stand why this action was unethic al, just as no one needs phil osophy to expl ain why it is wrong to leave farm animals to suff er and die from a lac k o f feed and water. On the other hand, the circum stances that lea d t o thes e b latantly unet hical actions can be better under stood (and hopef ully prevente d) thr ough careful rese arch on the insti- tution s and ince ntives faced by human actors. Ethical analysi s can shed ligh t on how ethica l situatio ns com e about and wha t w e might do in resp onse.

In addi tion, there are some topics whos e ethica l dim ensions are less obvio us such as b iofuel produc tion and intern ational trade regulatio ns. These topics requi re careful rese arch and analysi s t o reveal the ethica l issues. Some times, they are beset with contradict ory and conflicting views on why and even whe ther iss ues of right and wrong are invol ved at all. It is these case exampl es that give rise to scholar ship by phil osophers, social scient ists, and agricul tural special ists. The Encyclope dia of Food and Agric ultural Ethics was conce ived to provi de overviews of the work that had already been done on key areas of prac tice in food and agricultu ral systems of produc tion, distribut ion, and consum ption. The aim was to facilitat e more and better scholar ship in all aspects of the field.

And so, we entered the project with the expec tation that it woul d b e a long and arduo us proce ss to recrui t authors and to compile a volume of the scope

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that the subj ect deserved. The volume that eme rged has met our expec tations in man y respect s; yet, there are tw o ways in which the o riginal vision has been significa ntly altered.

First, man y o f the topi cs that we placed on the origina l list had far less existing schol arship than we expec ted. There is still a lack of scholarly matur ity in the field of food and agricul tural ethics . The problem we faced is that an encyclope dia is a work of tertiar y literature . I t should contain n either researc h (primary lite rature) nor review article s sum marizing original papers (secondar y literatu re). It should instea d sum marize establ ished informat ion in the field. As editor s, we found ourse lves in the unfortun ate position of too little to edit. Worse, we had to excl ude fine wor ks of origina l ethics schol ar- ship more appropri ate for a journal such as Springer ’s Journa l o f Agric ultural and Envir onmenta l Ethics than for a ref erence work. It is our hope that today’s origina l scholar ship on food and agri cultural ethics will soon develop a secondary literature that deserves its own encyclope dia entry.

Second, the cont inued grow th of digital publishing has shape d our editor ial practice in way s that we did not fully anticipate. Whi le ele ctronic acce ss was a cruc ial aspect of the ori ginal design, we did not fully appreci ate the impact of this format on the timeliness of cont ent. As the first entrie s began to trickle in during 2011 and 2012, we began to reali ze that the pace of scholar ship (and of the issues themse lves) threatened to date some very fine entr ies by the time that the entire edition would be done. It becam e cle ar that the cutoff date for declaring the encyc lope dia to be “compl ete” and read y for publica tion was becomi ng increas ingly arbitrar y. At the end of the day, we decided that it was more important to go to press than to cause further dela y i n making the fine wor k that we had already compil ed available . Entries will cont inue to be added, and existing entrie s will be updated in the online edition. The Encyclope dia of Food and Agricultura l Ethi cs will be a living docum ent.

Augu st 2014 Paul B. Thomp son

David M. Kap lan