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Encyclopedia of Food and Agricultural Ethics pp 1417–1423Cite as

Nanotechnology in Agriculture

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Synonyms

Agriculture; Ethics; Food science; Nanotechnology; Risk; Socio-economics

Introduction

Climate change and increased global population give rise to a special emphasis on how agriculture can expand production under changing conditions. Agriculture has also seen radical changes the last century with a turn towards research-based, industrialized agriculture with large-scale monocultures, mechanization, increased irrigation, use of artificial fertilizers, and pest control systems, combined with a change from local towards export-oriented making of products to be used for food, feed, fuel, and fiber. Biotechnology-based interventions such as systematic breeding, as witnessed in the Green Revolution, and genetic modification have led to commercially successful but politically controversial herbicide-tolerant and pest-resilient varieties of major crops, with promises of a wide range of new varieties in the years to come. In recent years nanotechnology methods and products have been...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. GenØk-Centre of Biosafety, Science Park, Tromsø, 9242, Norway

    Anne Ingeborg Myhr

  2. Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, 7491, Norway

    Bjørn Kåre Myskja

Authors
  1. Anne Ingeborg Myhr
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  2. Bjørn Kåre Myskja
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anne Ingeborg Myhr .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

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

    Paul B. Thompson

  2. Department of Philosophy and Religion, University of North Texas, Denton, TX, USA

    David M. Kaplan

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© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Myhr, A.I., Myskja, B.K. (2014). Nanotechnology in Agriculture. In: Thompson, P.B., Kaplan, D.M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Food and Agricultural Ethics. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0929-4_229

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0929-4_229

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-007-0928-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-007-0929-4

  • eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and Law

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