Environmental Impact and Environmental Values

Abstract

This chapter completes coverage of environmental risks begun in Chap. 6, which emphasized both the philosophical rationale for expected-value risk analysis, along with weaknesses in the way that approach has been applied to agrifood gene technology. This chapter discusses ethical objections to expected value analysis and takes up classical questions in environmental ethics. These include the basis for associating moral value with non-sentient entities such as plants, collectivities such as species or ecosystems and also for nature or the environment itself. The chapter proposes a novel approach to these problems based on the standpoint or attitude of the valuing subject. Classic approaches that stress intrinsic or instrumental valuation presume that valuation proceeds from the perspective of a spectator standing aloof from nature. Although classic approaches have not presumed that this spectator is a human being, the good of any entity derives from the spectator’s gaze. This is consistent with the notion of value as a consumption activity. In contrast, a more engaged, involved or truly environed approach can be elicited by taking the perspective of a producer. This is an especially fortuitous approach for developing an environmental ethics for agriculture and food.