Paul B Thompson | Michigan State University (original) (raw)

Papers by Paul B Thompson

Technology in Society, 2024

Advanced cryopreservation technologies have the potential to transform organ transplants, biomedi... more Advanced cryopreservation technologies have the potential to transform organ transplants, biomedical research, food storage, aquaculture, biodiversity repositories, ecological restoration, and numerous other applications. These surpass the capability of existing cryopreservation technologies to extend the life and viability of biological materials at various scales from cells to tissues, organs, and entire organisms. In this article, we demonstrate why innovations in advanced cryopreservation, which we analyze as emergent, convergent platform technologies,
raise novel concerns for research ethics and coordination, governance, and equitable access to benefits. As emerging technologies, they may disrupt markets or destabilize social institutions, including the systems that govern the distribution of organs for transplant. As convergent technologies, their impact will be heightened through interaction with other technologies. The technologies that may intensify the social and ethical effects of advanced cryopreservation include information technologies that permit the administration of complex logistics
of storage and transport, biotechnologies for the management of floral and faunal species and populations, and 3D printing technologies that may enable the development and distribution of customizable peripheral components of this platform technology. The speed of development among diverse applications of the core platform is likely to vary between sectors in ways that are responsive to public support as well as to ethical constraints, and advancements in any sector will affect the achievement of reliability for the core technology across sectors. We recommend that societal benefits and risks be assessed in the specific contexts for which peripheral components are developed.

Greentopia: Utopian Thought in the Anthropocene, 2024

This chapter from Kallhoff & Liedauer's 2024 book sets out some key features of an agriculturally... more This chapter from Kallhoff & Liedauer's 2024 book sets out some key features of an agriculturally based environmental utopia. In such a world, the production of food and fiber would be wholly consonant with resilient ecosystems, but the idea of a utopia implies more. The paper explores the tension between utopias that emphasize food security and those that highlight resilience. The paper draws on my earlier distinctions between industrial and agrarian philosophies of agriculture.

Journal of Responsible Innovation, 2024

An inclusive and socially legitimate governance structure is absent to address concerns over new ... more An inclusive and socially legitimate governance structure is absent to address concerns over new agricultural biotechnologies. Establishing an agricultural bioethics commission devoted to inclusive deliberation on ethics and governance in agricultural and food biotechnology is urgent. Highlighting the social and ethical dimensions of current agricultural bioengineering disputes in the food system, we discuss how a nationally recognized policy forum could improve decision-making and increase public understanding of the issues. We clarify ways the concepts that are used to categorize food and frame governance of food affect consumer choices, and how dissemination of information and the mode of dissemination can contribute to social inequities. We cite the record of medically-oriented bioethic commissions and the history of international bioethic commissions in support of our argument, and end by discussing what such a commission dedicated to agriculture and food issues could reasonably be expected to achieve.

Key Issues in Agricultural Ethics, 2023

Agricultural ethics is a form of reflective inquiry on norms and goals for agriculture and food s... more Agricultural ethics is a form of reflective inquiry on norms and goals for agriculture and food systems. It should be distinguished from aspects of common morality that regulate behavior. Violations of the common morality occur in agriculture, but the moral or normative dimension is not controversial. In contrast agricultural ethics is a sustained and systematic form of research on uncertain, disputed or antiquated norms for food systems. The chapter includes a brief discussion on teaching agricultural ethics.

Science, 2022

A letter in Science arguing for a U.S. commission to discuss and review ethical issues in food an... more A letter in Science arguing for a U.S. commission to discuss and review ethical issues in food and agricultural technology.

Science, 2022

Cross Currents, 1982

Extended review of "Ethics in the 21st Century" edited by Good paster and Sayer

A Guide to Field Philosophy, 2020

This paper is a self description of the impact that my career work has had outside the discipline... more This paper is a self description of the impact that my career work has had outside the discipline of philosophy.

Encyclopedia of Ethical, Legal and Policy Issues in Biotechnology, 2000

Introduction Biotechnology and Food Food: Safe, Pure, and Wholesome Risk, Safety, and Deliberativ... more Introduction Biotechnology and Food Food: Safe, Pure, and Wholesome Risk, Safety, and Deliberative Rational Choice Approaches to Food Safety Assessing Risk Risk, Purity, and Consent Risk and Purity Risk and Consent Food Labels Keywords: agricultural biotechnology

The Santa Clara Journal of International Law, 2006

The International Library of Environmental, Agricultural and Food Ethics

The ethics of aid and trade

Agriculture and Human Values

The American journal of bioethics : AJOB, Sep 1, 2017

Lisa Lee’s “A Bridge Back to the Future” (Lee 2017) is a noble effort to connect strands in publi... more Lisa Lee’s “A Bridge Back to the Future” (Lee 2017) is a noble effort to connect strands in public health and environmental ethics to mainstream bioethics, and one that is close to my heart. Yet she neglects some obvious components of that bridge that were prominent in Van Potter’s vision. Potter wrote partially in response to work by population ecologists such as Garrett Hardin or Paul and Anne Ehrlich, who were raising ethical questions about growth in human numbers and the planet’s capacity to produce enough food. It was already evident that continued expansion of agriculture would impinge on uncultivated flora and fauna (what we now call biodiversity), while undernutrition and famine were causing a rolling crisis in global public health. These problems are still with us, as a recent article in Science attests (Crist, Mora, and Engelman 2017). In fact, the ethical issues have gotten thornier. Food security in less developed regions is now ironically understood to be most severe among subsistence smallholders—a phenomenon that undercuts the wisdom of responding with gifts of food (Thompson 2015). In the industrialized West, obesity and overconsumption are recognized as key issues in public health, and ethical debates about where to assign responsibility and how to respond are now occurring (Barnhill et al. 2014). The large philosophical literature that advocates for vegetarianism on moral grounds presents further complications, and there are also moral norms of hospitality that have governed more traditional food practices (Boisvert and Heldke 2016). Popular works like Fast Food Nation and The Omnivore’s Dilemma have stimulated a social movement aimed at social and environmental justice via personal dietary choice, and Peter Singer is one philosopher who has offered such advice (Singer and Mason 2007). Lee not only omits the issues, she neglects to mention the work that philosophers have done on food ethics throughout the last four decades. One can scarcely imagine that Lee will object to the suggestion that food topics should be included in her bridge back to the future. I argue a stronger claim: Food ethics has both a centrality and an integrative capacity in a broadened conception of bioethics. As such, the vision that Professor Lee advances will not be achieved if food issues remain off the radar of bioethics. Lee’s bridge needs a vigorous effort to renew the bioethics community’s attention to the production, distribution, and consumption of food. THE CENTRALITY OF FOOD ETHICS

Cahiers D Economie Et Sociologie Rurales, 2000

Philosophy in Review, 1988

Nature Biotechnology, 2003

Sustaining Soil Productivity in Response to Global Climate Change: Science, Policy, and Ethics,

Greater willingness to engage in ethical dialog over alternative ways to understand the ethics of... more Greater willingness to engage in ethical dialog over alternative ways to understand the ethics of soil can both clarify soil management goals and sharpen unspoken differences of perspective that may lead to conflict or unintended consequences. The chapter provides a provisional “first draft” inventory of the way that ethical language is used in ways that bear on soil management and stewardship. First, ethical considerations motivate action in three distinct contexts: acts of single individuals such as farmers; collective (but often informal) management of soils as common pool resources; and finally in the justification of public policy. In each of these domains, it is possible to conceptualize soil management as a means or instrument for achieving more fundamental ends, such as fulfilling duties to other people or future generations or finding the optimal distribution of goods and evils in the form of human sustenance and environmental insult. It may also be possible to move beyond ...

Low-Probability High-Consequence Risk Analysis, 1984

Traditional generic approaches to risk analysis give rise to problems in dealing with aspects of ... more Traditional generic approaches to risk analysis give rise to problems in dealing with aspects of low-probability/high-consequence or high-probability/low-consequence risk. Risk benefit analysis (and other forms of risk assessment) have concentrated on developing quantifications of risks to health, safety, and property which concentrate on the middle range of risk. Risks of extremely low probability or of extremely low consequence are therefore poorly represented. Attempts to resolve this problem on a generic basis have suffered from difficulties in application and general philosophical justification. As an alternative, a situational approach is recommended.

Technology in Society, 2024

Greentopia: Utopian Thought in the Anthropocene, 2024

Journal of Responsible Innovation, 2024

Key Issues in Agricultural Ethics, 2023

Science, 2022

Cross Currents, 1982

Extended review of "Ethics in the 21st Century" edited by Good paster and Sayer

A Guide to Field Philosophy, 2020

Encyclopedia of Ethical, Legal and Policy Issues in Biotechnology, 2000

The Santa Clara Journal of International Law, 2006

The International Library of Environmental, Agricultural and Food Ethics

The ethics of aid and trade

Agriculture and Human Values

The American journal of bioethics : AJOB, Sep 1, 2017

Cahiers D Economie Et Sociologie Rurales, 2000

Philosophy in Review, 1988

Nature Biotechnology, 2003

Sustaining Soil Productivity in Response to Global Climate Change: Science, Policy, and Ethics,

Low-Probability High-Consequence Risk Analysis, 1984

American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 1993

This is chapter 5 of From Field to Fork: Food Ethics for Everyone (Oxford, 2015). It discusses et... more This is chapter 5 of From Field to Fork: Food Ethics for Everyone (Oxford, 2015). It discusses ethical dilemmas that arise in making attempts to improve the welfare of animals being housed in intensive production systems

The term ‘posthumanism’ has not been promoted by many environmental philosophers, and it is not c... more The term ‘posthumanism’ has not been promoted by many environmental philosophers, and it is not clear how the figures I discuss would react to be being characterized as posthumanist. It is more typical for advocates of the perspectives I discuss to characterize them with labels such as ‘non-anthropocentric,’ ‘ecocentric’, or ‘deep ecology.’ Yet, as I will argue, the ideas that have emerged in these lines of thought reflect philosophical commitments that could aptly be characterized as posthumanist.

Organization & Environment, 2008

Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, 2009

Journal of European Popular Culture, 2019

These are the uncorrected page proofs for my review of Beth Dixon's book.

Ransom's manuscript from 1932 has recently been published by Notre Dame press

Greentopia, 2022

This chapter sets out some key features of an agriculturally based environmental utopia. In such ... more This chapter sets out some key features of an agriculturally based environmental utopia. In such a world, the production of food and fiber would be wholly conso-nant with resilient ecosystems, but the idea of a utopia implies more. Specifying the requirements for utopia is an inherently philosophical task, so criteria that emphasize resilient ecosystems may suggest a different utopia than criteria of food security, let alone food sovereignty. Furthermore, a full appreciation of the tensions implied by these different value orientations requires more than simply spelling the alternative ways to specify the desirable traits of a utopian society. I will illustrate these tensions by drawing upon the contrast between industrial and agrarian philosophies of agriculture, as outlined in my book, The Agrarian Vision. I will then explore how agrarian philosophical commitments would dictate criteria for a green utopia.

Agricultural and Food Biotechnology in Ethical Prespective, 3rd ed., 2021

This draft will appear as a new chapter in a revised edition of my biotechnology book. It provide... more This draft will appear as a new chapter in a revised edition of my biotechnology book. It provides synoptic overviews on key developments in gene technology since publication of the 2007 edition. Synthetic biology is discussed briefly, and more attention is given to CRISPrCas9, and gene editing. Both techniques can increase the speed at which a new product would move through the R&D process, and both have the potential to increase systemic linkages between gene technologies for food and agriculture, and gene technology for biomedical purposes. Beyond this, lessons learned from the experience with GMOs continue to be relevant. The framework of novel and normal risk will be a useful amendment to the technological ethics framework developed in earlier editions of this book. Three case studies are discussed: alternative proteins, horizontal environmental genetic alteration agents and gene drives for agricultural pest control. Only the last of these involves truly novel risks. Gene editing refers to a suite of tools and practices in genetic modification that started to be applied in product development around 2010. The suite includes zinc fingers, TALONS and CRISPrCas9, each of which has a somewhat different mechanism of operation. Gene editing followed on the heels of whole genome assembly and synthetic biology. I will argue that in the agrifood sector, experience with GMOs provides a sound basis for approach the ethics of these new methods. We should not presume that even newer methods in gene technology are impossible, nor should we assume that differences in the power or mechanism of these yet-to-be-imagined tools lack ethical significance. Nevertheless, statements on either matter would be speculative at the present juncture. As such, this chapter will concentrate on what unites them under the heading of gene editing, with some brief prefatory remarks on synthetic biology. Synthetic biology has thus far had limited applications in the food sector. Each the three gene editing tools provides the researcher to make a change in a plant or animal genome at a known location in the sequence of base pairs. This chapter will first offer a synoptic discussion of what this ability means in

This paper was written for a presentation at a conference organized by students at Stanford Unive... more This paper was written for a presentation at a conference organized by students at Stanford University in sometime between 2006 and 2008. Parts of of it were used in my published paper, P. B. Thompson, “Food Aid and the Famine Relief Argument (Brief Return),” The Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 23(2010): 209-227. I do not expect to be making further changes to this manuscript, but I would respond to comments from readers as I can.

This unpublished manuscript is a draft that was significantly modified for inclusion in World Hea... more This unpublished manuscript is a draft that was significantly modified for inclusion in World Health Organization (WHO)/Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR)/Foundation of the National Institutes of Health (FNIH). The Guidance Framework for field testing genetically engineered mosquitoes. TDR, June, 2014,169 pp. ISBN: ISBN 978 92 4 150748 6 Available at: http://www.who.int/tdr/publications/year/2014/guide-fmrk-gm-mosquit/en/

Cambridge Univ Press

Aged, Income maintenance for the Soviet (Porket), 3 (3), 301-23. Ageing, Social construction of, ... more Aged, Income maintenance for the Soviet (Porket), 3 (3), 301-23. Ageing, Social construction of, through work: economic structure and life-world (Kohli, Rosenow and Wolf), 3 (1), 23—42. Alternative perspective on retirement: a dual economic approach (Hendricks and McAllister), 3 (3), 279—99. Asians in Britain, Elderly South: a survey of relevant literature and themes for future research {Mays), 3 (1), 71—97. Britain, Elderly South Asians in: a survey of relevant literature and themes for future research (Mays), 3 (1), 71—97. Care ...

Uncorrected page proofs for a forthcoming paper. The paper is an introduction and overview of wor... more Uncorrected page proofs for a forthcoming paper. The paper is an introduction and overview of work on animals being done by philosophers, written for an audience of ethologists, veterinarians and animal scientists.

Forthcoming in the Oxford Handbook of Food Ethics

This is a draft of the response to critics on my book From Field to Fork that was held at the 201... more This is a draft of the response to critics on my book From Field to Fork that was held at the 2016 meeting of the North American Society for Social Philosophy in Ottawa, Canada.

Bryan Norton takes the debate over weak and strong sustainability to characterize the key concept... more Bryan Norton takes the debate over weak and strong sustainability to characterize the key conceptual disagreement among attempts to elaborate the idea theoretically. In contrast, I argue that this debate is mired within assumptions of economic development theory that fail to recognize how elements of fragility, stability, resilience and adaptive capability within system design or organization have been material to the way that sustainability has been conceptualized in many domains. Two paradigmatic conceptualizations of sustainability compete within the scholarly literature, one stressing the availability of key resource stocks, the other stressing the robustness and resilience of system organization. A better approach would move beyond weak and strong sustainability to acknowledge a deeper and more philosophically potent set of paradigmatic features within sustainability scholarship.

This short paper is written for presentation at the Central Division Meeting of the American Phil... more This short paper is written for presentation at the Central Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association on Saturday, Feb. 26, 2022. It discusses how technological changes induce morally significant shifts in the infrastructure (including property rights) for food system transactions.