BIOTA · A Biocentric Ethic of Sustainable Agriculture

BIOTA will develop a biocentric ethic of sustainable agriculture to address the lack of biocentric theorising in agricultural ethics and thereby promises to create a new sub-field in environmental philosophy. This necessary theoretical innovation will provide appropriate normative guidance for agricultural practices by reflecting on the plurality of different nonhuman lifeforms that are either the objects – like plants – or enablers – like soil microbes – of agricultural activities. Therefore, BIOTA pays particular attention to the often-overlooked non-sentient organisms facilitating agricultural practices, with a specific focus on plant agriculture (grain, vegetable and fruit farming) – which is frequently attributed a key role in sustainability transitions. Three interlinked layers (representing three objectives) form the core of BIOTA and – ideally – of any adequate biocentric agricultural ethic: (1) Biocentric theories argue that all living beings (incl. non-sentient organisms) are morally considerable. BIOTA will improve existing biocentric accounts by rethinking their main premisses in a more nuanced and relational way.(2) By developing agricultural ethics from a biocentric perspective, BIOTA will not only consider the farmer as a moral agent but put myriads of life forms that make agricultural practices possible into the centre of moral theorising (plants, the soil biota incl. bacteria, fungi and insects).(3) By theorising biocentrism in an empirically informed manner, BIOTA will develop its agricultural ethic in a way that reflects on environmental and technological change. That entails introducing systemic aspects beyond the typical scope of biocentrism – by reflecting on sustainability and socio-ecological resilience –, theorising on novel biotechnologies, and interviewing plant farmers themselves.