Encyclopedia of Food and Agricultural Ethics

The field of agricultural and food ethics emerged in the 1980's as scholars began to recognize the need for explicitly normative scholarship on problems and issues associated with the food system. After 25 years of growth, agricultural and food ethics have blossomed in the wake of food safety scandals and renewed interest in alternative ways to organize the agrifood system. There has been a rapid growth in courses taught and in the entry of new researchers into the topics of agricultural and food ethics over the last five years.

Scholarship has now reached a point where there is a need for a cross-cutting reference volume that will enable newcomers to the field to gain orientation to the array of topics and problems, existing scholarship on these topics and problems, and key concepts that have been established in agricultural and food ethics. Active scholars in the field would also benefit from literature reviews and survey articles that facilitate a more cumulative trend in research efforts.