Ethics of Sustainable Agricultural Intensification - FAO.org

vdamaging the environment in pursuit of mere subsistence. As Mahatma Gandhisaid, “To the millions who have to go without two meals in a day…God can onlyappear as bread”.The ethics of sustainable agricultural intensification is the third study in the FAOEthics Series. It explores a systematic approach to practical ethical analysis appliedto intensification, and aims at integrating ethical principles into the basket of policytools adopted by planners working to achieve the World Food Summit goal.Human food needs provide the basis for a utilitarian argument for intensification,while the moral concept of virtue addresses people’s duty to work for the good ofsociety. A rights-based analysis then reveals how individuals’ pursuit of such goodcan be constrained by the rights of others. These three approaches can help usarticulate, debate and ultimately assume ethical responsibilities concerning theintensification of agriculture.FAO intends to continue advancing the dialogue on the ethics of food andagriculture, as it forms an ineluctable part of humanity’s core commitment tofeeding the world. •Jacques DioufFAO Director-General