Encyclopedia of Food and Agricultural Ethics

The field of agricultural and food ethics emerged in the 1980's as scholars began to recognize the need for explicitly normative scholarship on problems and issues associated with the food system. After 25 years of growth, agricultural and food ethics have blossomed in the wake of food safety scandals and renewed interest in alternative ways to organize the agrifood system. There has been a rapid growth in courses taught and in the entry of new researchers into the topics of agricultural and food ethics over the last five years.

Scholarship has now reached a point where there is a need for a cross-cutting reference volume that will enable newcomers to the field to gain orientation to the array of topics and problems, existing scholarship on these topics and problems, and key concepts that have been established in agricultural and food ethics. Active scholars in the field would also benefit from literature reviews and survey articles that facilitate a more cumulative trend in research efforts.

Paul B. Thompson is W.K. Kellogg Chair in Agricultural, Food and Community Ethics, Department of Philosophy, Michigan State University, with partial appointments in the Agricultural Economics and Resource Development Departments. He previously held positions as Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Director, Center for Food Animal Productivity and Wellbeing at Purdue University and prior to that positions as Professor of Philosophy and Agricultural Economics and Director, Center for Science and Technology Policy and Ethics, at Texas A&M University.
Editorial positions at Springer are a jointly held position of editor-in-chief of the bookseries The International Library of Environmental, Agricultural and Food Ethics, and membership of the editorial boards of the journals Agriculture and Human Values, and Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics.

David M. Kaplan is associate professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religion at the University of North Texas. He is the author of Food Philosophy (Columbia University Press), editor of The Philosophy of Food (University of California Press), and coeditor with Paul B. Thompson of the Encyclopedia of Food and Agricultural Ethics, First Edition (Springer). He has published articles on food technologies, genetically modified food, artificial ingredients, and junk food. He also manages the Philosophy of Food Project.