Introduction
Agriculture has been at the heart of the human ethical systems since 9000 BCE when plants and animals were first domesticated. The “invention” of agriculture meant that humans changed the way they looked at land, food, sharing, home life, family, gender, age, technology, and property.
Such massive changes have happened twice in human history. The first change was after 9000 BCE when hunter-gatherers settled down in farms in different parts of the world. New ethical systems emerging included new systems of social stratification, rural and urban, and professions. Many of these relations were rooted in ties of personal loyalty and fealty between unequal people. Such systems even included large agricultural empires like those of Rome, China, and the Maya. These systems were often “feudal” in nature, because personal loyalties were at the heart of social...
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Waters, T. (2019). Agriculture and Ethical Change. In: Kaplan, D.M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Food and Agricultural Ethics. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-1179-9_429
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