Climate change and sustainable development

Ethical perspectives on land use and food production

Climate change and
sustainable development
Ethical perspectives on land use and food production
EurSAFE 2012
Tbingen, Germany
30 May - 2 June 2012
edited by:
Thomas Potthast
Simon Meisch
Wogen| ngen Acodem| c
P u 5 | | s h e r s
ISBN: 978-90-8686-197-2
e-ISBN: 978-90-8686-753-0
DOI: 10.3920/978-90-8686-753-0
Photo cover: William Perry
First published, 2012
Wageningen Academic Publishers
The Netherlands, 2012
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Climate change and sustainable development 7
EurSafe 2012 Committees
Organising Committee
International Centre for Ethics in the Science and Humanities (IZEW), Eberhard Karls Universitt
Tbingen, Germany
PD Dr. Tomas Potthast
Simon Meisch
Matthias Bornemann
Michael Botsch
Loni Hensler
Matthias Schlee
Daniel Schloz
Carla Wember
Scientifc committee
Coordinator
Tomas Potthast, Adjunct Professor and Managing Director, International Centre for Ethics in the
Science and Humanities (IZEW), Tbingen University, Germany
Members (alphabetically ordered)
Aerts, Stef, Executive Committee Member of EurSafe; Lecturer, Catholic University College Sint
Lieven and Centre for the Sciences, Technology and Ethics, Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium
Bellows, Anne, Professor and Director, Centre of Gender and Nutrition, Food Security Center,
University of Stuttgart-Hohenheim, Germany
Beusmann, Volker, Professor and Director, Research Centre for Biotechnology, Society and the
Environment (BIOGUM), Head Research Group Plant Breeding and Agriculture, University of
Hamburg, Germany
Escajedo San Epifanio, Leire, Executive Committee Member of EurSafe; Professor, Department of
Constitutional Law and History of Political Tought, University of the Basque Country Bilbao,
Spain
Grb-Schmidt, Elisabeth, Professor and Director, Institute for Ethics at the Faculty of Protestant
Teology and member of IZEW, Tbingen University, Germany
Grimm, Herwig, Professor, Messerli Research Institute for Ethics and Human-Animal-Relations,
University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna Medical University, University of Vienna, Austria
Hagen, Kristin, Executive Committee Member of EurSafe; Scientifc Staf, Europische Akademie zur
Erforschung von Folgen wissenschaflich-technischer Entwicklungen, Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler,
Germany
Hemleben, Vera, Professor, Centre for Molecular Biology of Plants and member of IZEW, Tbingen
University, Germany
Huppenbauer, Markus, Professor and Managing Director, University Research Program Ethics, Centre
for Ethics, University of Zrich, Switzerland
Matthias Kaiser, President EurSafe; Professor and Director, Centre for the Study of Sciences and
Humanities, University of Bergen, Norway
Karafyllis, Nicole C., Professor and Director, Institute of Philosophy, Technische Universitt
Braunschweig, Germany
8 Climate change and sustainable development
Meijboom, Franck, Secretary of EurSafes Executive Committee; Assistant Professor, ZENO Research
Institute for Philosophy, Utrecht University, the Netherlands
Meisch, Simon, Research Associate, International Centre for Ethics in the Science and Humanities
(IZEW), Tbingen University, Germany
Millar, Kate, Vice-President of EurSafe; Professor and Director, Centre for Applied Bioethics, University
of Nottingham, United Kingdom
Neeteson, Anne-Marie, Treasurer and Executive Committee Member of EurSafe; Vice President Welfare
and Compliance, Aviagen Group, Newbridge, United Kingdom
Olsson, Anna, Executive Committee Member of EurSafe; Researcher, Laboratory Animal Science,
Institute for Molecular and Cell Biology, University of Porto, Portugal
Rcklinsberg, Helena, Executive Committee Member of EurSafe; Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor,
Department of Animal Environment and Health, Swedish University of Agricultural Science
Uppsala, Sweden
Skorupinski, Barbara, Lecturer and Coordinator, Centre for Basic Studies in Ethics and Philosophy,
Freiburg University, Germany
De Tavernier, Johan, Executive Committee Member of EurSafe; Professor in Ethics, Faculty of Teology
and Religious Studies and Director, Centre for Science, Technology, and Ethics, Catholic University
of Leuven, Belgium
Voget-Kleschin, Lieske, Researcher, Environmental Ethics Group, Institute for Botany and Landscape
Ecology, University of Greifswald, Germany
Climate change and sustainable development 9
Table of contents
EurSafe 2012 Committees 7
Preface 17
Keynote contributions
Domains of climate ethics: an overview 23
K. Ott and C. Baatz
Te global governance of climate change, forests, water, and food: normative challenges 29
J. Gupta
Te willed blindness of humans: animal welfare and beyond 35
M. Gjerris
Section 1. Sustainability: general issues
Which sustainability suits you? 43
R. Boonen, S. Aerts and J. De Tavernier
Te value(s) of sustainability within a pragmatically justifed theory of values: considerations
in the context of climate change 49
R. Beck, S. Meisch and T. Potthast
Towards an ecological space paradigm: fair and sustainable distribution of environmental
resources 55
W. Peeters, J. Dirix and S. Sterckx
Section 2. Property rights and commons
Addressing the commons: normative approaches to common pool resources 63
A. Kallhof
A global solution to land grabbing? An institutional cosmopolitan approach 69
K. Hyer Tof
Climate change, intellectual property rights and global justice 75
C.A. Timmermann and H. van den Belt
10 Climate change and sustainable development
Section 3. Global warming and climate change
Global warming, ethics, and cultural criticism 83
M. Oksanen
Te ethics of climate change denial 90
B. Gremmen
World wide views on global warming: evaluation of a public debate 95
B. Bovenkerk and F.W.A. Brom
Te truth is that we have an inconvenient nature 100
P.F. Van Haperen, B. Gremmen and J. Jacobs
Section 4. Ethics, adaptation & mitigation
A climate tax on meat? 109
A. Nordgren
Acting now or later? Determining an adequate decision strategy for mitigation measures
addressing methane emissions from ruminants 115
G. Hirsch Hadorn, G. Brun, C. Soliva, A. Stenke and T. Peter
Equal per capita entitlements to greenhouse gas emissions: ajustice based-critique 121
J. Dirix, W. Peeters and S. Sterckx
Section 5. Ethics of non-agricultural land-management
Managing nature parks as an ethical challenge: a proposal for a practical tool to identify
fundamental questions 131
F.L.B. Meijboom and F. Ohl
Te citizens forest model: climate change, preservation of natural resources and forest ethics 137
J.W. Simon and W. Bode
Good change in the woods: conceptual and ethical perspectives on integrating sustainable
land-use and biodiversity protection 142
T. Potthast
Section 6. Environmental & agricultural ethics
A collective virtue approach to agricultural ethics 151
P. Sandin
Providing grounds for agricultural ethics: the wider philosophical signifcance of plant life
integrity 154
S. Pouteau
Climate change and sustainable development 11
Do algae have moral standing? On exploitation, ethical extension and climate change mitigation 160
R.J. Geerts, B. Gremmen and J. Jacobs
Animistic pragmatism and native ways of knowing: adaptive strategies for responding to
environmental change and overcoming the struggle for food in the Arctic 166
R. Anthony
Section 7. Intensive vs. extensive production: animal welfare, efciency and
environmental implications
Sustainability, animal welfare and ethical food policy: acomparative analysis of sustainable
intensifcation andholisticintegrative naturalism 175
S.P. McCulloch
All that is solid melts into air: the Dutch debate about factoryfarming 181
E. de Bakker, C. de Lauwere and M. Bokma-Bakker
Adaptive capacities from an animal welfare perspective 187
D.M. De Goede, B. Gremmen, and M. Blom-Zandstra
Agricultures 6 Fs and the need for more intensive agriculture 192
S. Aerts
Feed efciencies in animal production: a non-numerical analysis 196
R. Boonen, S. Aerts, M. Meganck, J. De Tavernier, D. Lips and E. Decuypere
For the beneft of the land? Ethical aspects of the impact of meat production on nature,
theenvironment and the countryside 202
C. Gamborg and M. Gjerris
Fewer burps in your burgers or more birds in the bush? 207
A. Bruce
Inconvenient truths and agricultural emissions 213
D.M. Bruce
Section 8. Agro-energy
Te ethics of using agricultural land to produce biomass: using energy like it grows on trees 221
O. Shortall and K. Millar
Setting the rules of the game: ethical and legal issues raised by bioenergy governance methods 227
C. Gamborg, P. Sande and H.T. Anker
Indias agrofuel policies from a feminist-environmentalist perspective 233
J. Rometsch
12 Climate change and sustainable development
Grafing our biobased economies on African roots? 239
L. Landeweerd, P. Osseweijer, J. Kinderlerer and R. Pierce
Section 9. Food policy
Transformation of food governance models: perspectives arisen from a food citizenship 247
L. Escajedo San Epifanio
Food policy and climate change: uncovering the missing links 253
V. Sodano
Sustainable food policies for the EU27: results from the EUPOPP project 259
U.R. Fritsche, B. Brohmann, K. Hnecke, E. Heiskanen, B. Schfer, H. Fammler and D. Leung
An ethical argument for vigilant prevention 267
S. Aerts, R. Boonen and J. De Tavernier
Liability versus responsibility: the food industry case 271
T. Caspi and Y. Lurie
Integrated assessments of emerging food technologies some options and challenges 275
E.-M. Forsberg
Addressing farmers or traders: socio-ethical issues in developing a national action plan for
sustainable crop protection 280
J.S. Buurma and V. Beekman
Section 10. Food in context
Tis is or is not food: framing malnutrition, obesity and healthy eating 289
M. Korthals
Food as art: poisis and the importance of sof impacts 295
J. Hymers
Conficting food production values: global free market or local production? 301
B.K. Myskja
Toward sustainable agriculture and food production: an ethically sound vision for the future 307
F.-T. Gottwald
Climate change and sustainable development 13
Section 11. Fish for food
Changing an iconic species by biotechnology: the case of Norwegian salmon 315
B.K. Myskja and A.I. Myhr
Why German consumers need to reconsider their preferences: theethical argument for
aquaculture 321
M. Kaiser
Fish for food in a challenged climate: ethical refections 326
H. Rcklinsberg
Section 12. Food and sustainability
A theoretical framework to analyse sustainability relevant food choices from a cultural
perspective: caring for food and sustainability in a pluralistic society 335
H. Schsler, J. de Boer and J.J. Boersema
Food, sustainability and ecological responsibility: hunger as the negation of human rights 342
F. Javier Blzquez Ruiz
Cultured meat: will it separate us from nature? 348
S. Welin and C. Van der Weele
Section 13. Consumers and consuming
Gender diferences in pro-social behaviour: the case of Fair Trade food consumers 355
B. De Devitiis, A.I. De Luca and O.W. Maietta
Employing a normative conception of sustainability to reason and specify green consumerism 361
L. Voget-Kleschin
Are we morally obliged to become vegans? 367
S.-J. Conrad
Food ethics: new religion or common sense? 373
E. Schmid
Section 14. Science and governance
Climate change and biodiversity: a need for refexive interdisciplinarity 381
A. Blanchard
Changing societies: ethical questions raised by ANR-funded research programs and projects
related to climate and environmental change 387
M. de Lattre-Gasquet, P. Monfay and M. Vauclin
14 Climate change and sustainable development
Examining the inclusion of ethics and social issues in bioscience research: concepts of
refection in science 394
R. Smith and K. Millar
Biochar for smallholder farmers in East Africa: arguing for transdisciplinary research 400
N. Hagemann
Section 15. Values for governance
Biotechnology and a new approach to a theory of values 407
J.N. Markopoulos
Towards a value-refexive governance of water 413
S. Meisch, R. Beck and T. Potthast
Mapping core values and ethical principles for livelihoods in Asia 419
S. Bremer, A.S. Haugen and M. Kaiser
Section 16. Biotechnology in context
Confict cloud green genetic engineering: structuring and visualizing the controversy over
biotechnology in agriculture 427
C. Drnberger
Maize as a cultural element of identity and as a biological being: narratives of Mexican
children on the transgenic maize debate and the importance of knowing the context 431
W. Cano and A. Ibarra
Implementation of ethical standards in a cattle improvement company 436
M. De Weerd, F.L.B. Meijboom and J.S. Merton
Section 17. Animal ethics
Leaving the ivory tower or back into theory? Learning from paradigm cases in animal ethics 441
H. Grimm
From just using animals to a justifcation of animal use: the intrinsic value of animals as a
confusing start 447
F.L.B. Meijboom
Daniel Haybrons theory of welfare and its implications for animal welfare assessment 450
T. Viak
Cognitive relatives yet moral strangers? Killing great apes and dolphins for food 455
J. Benz-Schwarzburg
Climate change and sustainable development 15
Assessing the animal ethics review process 462
O. Varga, P. Sande and I.A.S. Olsson
Investigating the existence of an Animal Kuznets curve in the EU-15 countries 468
F. Allievi and M. Vinnari
Te Chinese animal: from food to pet 475
S. Andersen yen
Section 18. Ethics teaching
Bringing animal ethics teaching into the public domain: the Animalogos experience 483
I.A.S. Olsson, N.H. Franco and M. Magalhes-SantAna
Teaching sustainability and ethics 489
M. Steiner and B. Skorupinski
Teaching sustainable development and environmental ethics: the IBMB-concept of bringing
theory and practical cases together 496
C. Jung and B. Elger
Section 19. Ethical matrix and learning instruments
Te Mepham Matrix and the importance of institutions in food and agricultural ethics 505
L. Voget-Kleschin
Te ethical matrix as an instrument for teaching and evaluation 511
J. Dietrich, R. Lutz, M. Hilscher, D. Manoharan, I. Matute Giron, J. Mauser, S. Schweizer and
A.C. Bellows
Food ethics for an active citizenry: AgroFood Democracy an active learning tool 517
I.L. Calderon, L. Escajedo San Epifanio, M. de Renobales, A. Lopez-Basaguren,
M.Gorrotxategi, M. Martinez de Pancorbo, A. Rocandio, K. Millar, R. Anthony,
R. Gonzlez-Garca, S. Tarodo, P.C. Prieto, A.Jelencovic, I. Salces, A. Bernardo and M. Novo
Author index 521
Keyword index 523

Climate change and sustainable development 17
Preface
A common perception in Europe seems to be that climate change is something that we are to expect in
the future. Yet, if one moves the attention to developing countries of the (global) south, e.g. to South-
East Asia, climate change becomes the name of, for example, adverse weather conditions that people
struggle with already now. While rich countries still debate proper mitigation eforts, perhaps slowly
moving towards measures of adaptation and resilience, the poor countries in the world focus on justice in
damage compensations and controls, and restoration eforts a debate that potentially involves burden
sharing with a special responsibility of the rich countries since their lifestyles mainly caused the problem
in the frst place. Nowhere is this more evident than in the food sector.
Climate change is the major framing condition for a sustainable development of agriculture and food
production in a double sense. Global food production on the one hand is a major contributor to
global greenhouse gas emissions, and thus amplifying climate change. On the other hand, global food
production is also among the sectors that assumedly is worst afected by climate change. Ongoing
changes in and of land-use practices on local, regional and global scales ofen dubbed as glocal
situations are placing a particular strain on sustainable development. Forestry and fsheries are similarly
afected, thus adding to the number of people who are directly afected.
In this context, agricultural and food ethics (and adjacent felds) once again need to address well known,
but aggravated old problems. Tese are, among others, desertifcation boosted by temperature increase,
changing precipitation regimes, unsustainable and/or unfair land-use and water regimes, pressure on
arable land due to the loss of coastal areas, soil degradation and suburban sprawl, and the strain placed
on both environment and animal welfare as a consequence of a growing worldwide demand for animal
products. Furthermore, the promise of new technologies to pave the way towards sustainable food
production and food security needs to examined critically and evaluated ethically. Certain consumption
patterns may become more and more unbearable in the light of global sustainability. All these phenomena
and their manifold socio-economic implications on justice and fairness need to be investigated and
refected on from ethical perspectives.
At the same time, however, climate change also creates some specifc difculties: Tere are and will be
new irreversible changes of natural and anthropogenic systems, which are associated with a high degree
of uncertainties with regard to their consequences. Furthermore, mitigation and adaptation measures
to counter or slow down climate change have already resulted in considerable changes in agri- and
silvicultural land-use. Tis is mainly but not only due to the signifcant increase in growing plants for
energy supply (biofuels). Another perspective is the purchase or long-term tenancy of arable land or
of water rights in the countries of the global south by wealthy nations and by transnational enterprises.
In the case of animal production, specifc dilemmas arise when a narrow focus on carbon efciency
favours intensive production systems which are decoupled from traditional agricultural considerations.
Te coupling of demands of high efciency in food production systems with demands on ecologically
and socio-economically sustainable practices places particular challenges to future developments, also
in the light of the global nature of food trade and markets. Finally, citizens values and preferences in
regard to both governance frameworks as well as lifestyle and consumption patterns with regard to
adaptation and mitigation will in any case be crucial for choices that will dominate the marketplace as
well as industrial and political realities.
Tese issues are exemplary of the many dimensions which demand refection from an agricultural and
food ethics perspective. Te community of scholars involved in the European Society for Agricultural
and Food Ethics (EurSafe; www.eursafe.org) is in particular challenged to mobilize their competencies
18 Climate change and sustainable development
and creativity in order to contribute to ethically sound pathways to sustainable food production and
consumption. Te mission of EurSafe is to bring the ethical dimensions of agriculture and food and
their respective contexts to the fore, make them subject to scholarly debate and public democratic
deliberation. Previous meetings were successfully held in Bilbao (2010), Nottingham (2009), Vienna
(2007), Oslo (2006), Leuven (2004), Toulouse (2003), Florence (2001), Copenhagen (2000) and
Wageningen (1999). Te 10
th
EurSafe Congress has been dedicated to the spectrum of themes around
climate change and sustainable development. Tus the holding of this Congress in Tbingen marks
an important step towards anchoring EurSafe within a global agenda. Its overarching theme calls for
contributions from various academic disciplines, from all walks of life and from all cultures. Tbingen
is set to provide the ideal meeting forum for fruitful discussions in a peaceful and relaxed, but also
intellectually stimulating atmosphere.
In Tbingen, EurSafe for the frst time gathers for a conference in Germany. Te city hosts Eberhard Karls
Universitt that, being found in 1477, belongs to the oldest and most prestigious German universities.
Both city and university are known for their commitment to action with regard to climate change.
Tbingen macht blau is the motto of a campaign by which the City of Tbingen successfully is on the
way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Since 2011, Tbingen University is the frst university in Baden-
Wrttemberg and one of only few larger universities in Germany adopting a voluntary environmental
management regime (Eco-Management and Audit Scheme; EMAS) in order to continuously improve
its environmental performance. Both campaigns are not only top-down approaches but also supported
by citizenship and university members, respectively. Hence, the conference takes place in a wider social
context that is committed to climate protection.
EurSafe 2010 has been organised by the International Centre for Ethics in the Sciences and Humanities
(IZEW). Founded in 1990, IZEW is an interdisciplinary and interfaculty unit of Tbingen University
devoted to the whole range of application-oriented ethics research and teaching. It shall be worth
noticing that the roots of the Ethics centre have to do with one of the central themes of EurSafe: since
1985 both professors and students established structures for debating the use of genetic engineering
in medicine and agriculture from the perspectives of technology assessment and ethics. Te frst
interdisciplinary dissertation submitted in the department of biology was devoted to an ethical
evaluation of herbicide resistant transgenic crops. Many other projects followed, e..g. one on Bacillus
thuringiensis toxine of transgenic plants for crop protection, one on stock breeding of transgenic
husbandry and one on perspectives on biotechnology and food. To date, the working group Nature
and Sustainable Development addresses agricultural and food issues in the context of global change
and biodiversity hence in the broader picture of sustainability. Representatives and staf of IZEW
have been honoured by the decision of EurSafe to hold its 10
th
conference in Tbingen. Tey are more
than happy organising the meeting and to gain insights from the excellent contributions as well from
networking with scholars from a range of almost 20 countries in Europe and further abroad.
Tis conference volume brings together some 80 papers, almost all conference contributions of the
regular oral presentation format. Te themes and perspectives are manifold. As introduction and
overview, general issues of climate ethics and sustainability, of the anthropological-political dimension
of animal ethics, of environmental, agricultural and food ethics and of governance are raised. One
further line of themes is linked to global questions of property rights and commons, of debates on
global warming and climate change, the ensuing ethical issues of adaptation and mitigation as well as of
non-agricultural land-management. A second line treats the contested question whether in the light
of climate change intensive or extensive production shall be sought. Here animal welfare, efciency
and environmental implications are discussed. Another topic of high signifcance linked to this land-use
issue is, of course, agro-energy. In a third line, food policy and broader contexts of food and nutrition
are at stake, including one of the major future issues (not only) of protein recruitment, i.e. fsh for food
Climate change and sustainable development 19
and, more generally, food and sustainability. Te latter already is linked closely to the fourth line, the
societal perspectives on consumers and consuming, on science and governance and, again more broadly,
values for governance. In regard to the ffh line we expected many more contributions on the issues of
biotechnology, both in agricultural production and on the food sector. What we instead found is that
questions of animal ethics have in comparison gained much more attention. Last but not least, ethics
teaching, ethical methodology and learning instruments are presented and discussed.
Tis volume cannot cover the whole range of themes around climate change and sustainable development.
For example, the issue of food waste is not present in this volume. However, the diversity of contributions
will provide important insights into the contested ethical issues of agriculture and food security in the
light of global change and shifing land-use patterns. Te authors of the papers form a diverse community
of academic scholars, public sector professionals, representatives from industry and non-governmental
institutions. It is part of EurSafes policy that a variety of ethical approaches and standpoints are expressed
in this book.
Te contributions in this volume have been peer-reviewed by the scientifc committee before being
accepted for presentation at the congress and for publication. Te editors are deeply obliged to the
colleagues who provided their expertise as reviewers. Tey also want to express their gratitude to the
team members of the organising committee and to Mike Jacobs from Wageningen Academic Press for
untiring help in the editing process. Last but not least we want to thank all the contributors to this
book for providing a broad spectrum of high-ranking and stimulating papers. We are convinced that
the present volume will contribute to carve out pathways of sustainable land use under conditions of
climate change. Advancing the perspectives of agricultural and food ethics is becoming more and more
of a crucial necessity in this efort.
Matthias Kaiser
President of EurSafe; University of Bergen Norway
Tomas Potthast
Director of the EurSafe 2012 Congress organising committee; International Centre for Ethics in the
Science and Humanities (IZEW), Tbingen University Germany