Mistra Biotech

Mistra Biotech is a four-year interdisciplinary research programme focusing on the use of biotechnology for sustainable and competitive agriculture. In component project 3 – Ethics – we provide structured methods for analysing the ethical acceptability of biotechnological applications used in agriculture. Despite the large literature on ethics of technology in general, there is a shortage of studies carried out in close collaboration with scientists developing the actual technologies. Therefore, much of the debate is insufficiently informed about recent developments and has been rather sweeping in character. In order to obtain more precision and higher resolution in the analysis, a close analysis of the technological and use-related dimensions of biotechnology that may influence its ethical appraisal will be undertaken in close co-operation between the natural scientists and the ethicists in the programme. In the project we will also investigate what precaution, sustainability and naturalness might mean in the context of agricultural biotechnology. We will also investigate whether the notion of Hubris can be used as an argument against the use of GM crops in agriculture.

Participating researchers from the Division of Philosophy KTH:

- Payam Moula, moula@kth.se

- Karin Edvardsson Björnberg, karine@kth.se

- Sven Ove Hansson, soh@kth.se

Project duration: 2012-2015

Programme website: http://www.slu.se/en/collaborative-centres-and-projects/mistra-biotech/

Publications:

Moula, P. (2015) GM crops, the Hubris argument and the nature of agriculture. Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 28: 161-177.

Moula, P., Sandin, P. (in press) Evaluating ethical tools. Forthcoming in Metaphilosophy.

Hansson, S. O. (in press) Agricultural biotechnology for health and the environment, forthcoming in M. R. Ahuja, and K.G. Ramawat, K.G. (eds) Biotechnology and Biodiversity. Springer.

Hansson, S. O. 2014. Food Labelling. In: Thompson, P.B., Kaplan, D.M., Millar, K., Heldke, L., Bawden, R. (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Food and Agricultural Ethics . Springer

Hansson, S. O. 2014. Food Risks. In: Thompson, P.B., Kaplan, D.M., Millar, K., Heldke, L., Bawden, R. (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Food and Agricultural Ethics . Springer

Hansson, S. O. 2014. Occupational Risks in Agriculture. In: Thompson, P.B., Kaplan, D.M., Millar, K., Heldke, L., Bawden, R. (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Food and Agricultural Ethics . Springer.

Joelsson, K., Hansson, S. O. 2013. Crop biotechnology for the environment? Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 26: 759-770.

Hansson, S. O. 2013. Agricultural biotechnology – the need for less myopic perspectives. Journal of the Swedish Seed Association 121(1): 8-10.