The Human Ecosystem: knowledge and philosophy

All species exist within their ecology and niche. This is a combination of physical things, both favourable and unfavourable: nutrients and prey, predators and toxins, hot and cold, water and salt. If you imagine a deer in the woods, it exists among the trees, eating grass and bark. Humans are not like this. We live…

Deep Ecology, Eco-Moral Nihilism and Meat Eating

Contrary to many environmental philosophies, I think it is important to recognise humans as occupying a special niche within nature. Eco-philosophies often have the assumption that humans are, in fact, indistinguishable from the rest of nature and the logical conclusion is that humans have no special rights to abstraction and interference. I think the logical…

Food Security and Ethics

Food security is not easily and readily defined. Food security can be viewed from a variety of ethical, ecological and economic stances. And how one approaches food security philosophically effects what the goals are and has practical implications. It’s not necessarily as easy as saying ‘food security is about ensuring competitively priced food to all…