Agriculture, Equality, and the Problem of Incorporation

Abstract

This paper argues for the possibility of ethical agriculture by employing ecological feminist philosophical frameworks in articulating and responding to two important objections. First, the problem of equality expresses the objection that a just, egalitarian relationship is incompatible with the agricultural project of cultivating nonhumans for human consumption. I argue against this seeming incompatibility by reformulating equality as incommensurability; we might think of two entities as equal not because they occupy the same position along a scalar measure of value, but because they ought not be ranked against each other along such a scale. To me it is plausible that a high degree of avoidance of ranking is possible in agricultural practices that are authentically dialogical. I suggest that when practical ranking is unavoidable, then dialogical relationships allow for responsible ranking. Second, the problem of incorporation, expresses the objection that in agricultural contexts, nonhuman beings are defined by reference to the human ends they will serve, and the meaning of such beings is incorporated into human meaning, reflecting a lack of respect for the beings themselves. In response I suggest that defining ourselves in terms of our relationships to the nonhumans that we raise and consume goes a long way toward addressing this problem. I argue that the ecological feminist commitment to an understanding of self as fundamentally ecological and ethically open to communication across species can be meaningfully embedded in our understanding and undertaking of agricultural projects.