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Ethics of Urban Agriculture

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Sowing Seeds in the City

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Abstract

In as much as ethics are based on questions of how to live well, what should be of concern (and of ultimate concern), and the quality of relationships between subjects, it will involve considerations of the ways in which food mediates how we live in relation to others, our local ecologies, and the agricultural areas and farming practices upon which we depend. An ethics of urban agriculture should offer guidance about food as a system of complex, intimate, and interdependent relationships rather than as a simple product, object, or thing. After providing an overview of how environmental philosophers have and have not addressed food-related ethics, this chapter argues that urban agriculture provides an important “focal practice” for reflection, solidarity, and deliberation with others about the larger ecological and social systems upon which we depend.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Director of Cultures of Conservation, Center for Humans and Nature, Chicago, IL, USA

    Gavin van Horn

Authors
  1. Gavin van Horn
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gavin van Horn .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Health Sciences, University of Alaska Anchorage, Anchorage, Alaska, USA

    Elizabeth Hodges Snyder

  2. Harvest Pierce County, Pierce Conservation District, Puyallup, Washington, USA

    Kristen McIvor

  3. School of Environmental & Forest Science, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA

    Sally Brown

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van Horn, G. (2016). Ethics of Urban Agriculture. In: Hodges Snyder, E., McIvor, K., Brown, S. (eds) Sowing Seeds in the City. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-7456-7_16

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