A discipline where theory meets practice
Agriculture itself and most agricultural concepts and classifications are defined normatively. As such, philosophy of agriculture is an area of research and practice where values are an inextricable constituent of not only knowledge generation but of the standards that define its research method, quality of evidence, and the conditions of replicability.
An interdisciplinary and collaborative approach
The goal of the philosophy of agriculture hub is to provide an incubator for exploratory research in agricultural knowledge production; epistemological, social and ethical impacts of agriculture biotechnologies; and the role of values and goals in farm management decision-making and farming practices. The core team (Kendig, Thompson and Yilmaz Silverman) conduct philosophical research in collaboration with the hub, organize interdisciplinary research initiatives, and facilitate community engaged projects in philosophy of agriculture.
These research collaborations rely on an innovative approach to interdisciplinary research that combine:
1) Methods from agricultural sciences from soil biophysics to international seed systems and from urban composting to rural food systems, with
2) Epistemological and methodological tools of analysis from philosophy of science,
3) Valuative, goal-oriented, and other normative approaches from philosophical ethics,
4) History of plant sciences, animal sciences, and soil-plant interactions, and
5) History, sociology and anthropology of agriculture and agricultural extension activities.
What are some of our research questions?
- How do agricultural categories and concepts like “farm”, “yield”, “field”, and “soil health” work, and what do they tell us about agricultural knowledge and farming practices?
- What are the affects (good, bad, and otherwise) of the use of new biotechnologies in agriculture?
- What is agriculture for, and how can and should we do it better?
