Agriculture and the Undergraduate (1992) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
21 Designing an Environmentally Responsible Undergraduate Curriculum
21 Designing an Environmentally Responsible Undergraduate Curriculum
Pages 173-187
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 173... ...
Even the briefest survey of our nation's history reveals that the reality does not accord with the agrarian myth of good stewardship. Whether it is a matter of the eroded badlands of Oklahoma, the Dust Bowl era immortalized in John Steinbeck~s The Grapes of Wrath, the massive destruction of hundreds of thousands of acres of wetlands in the San Joaquin Valley of California, the depletion of the Ogallala aquifer of the High Plains, the fertilizer-induced eutrophication of the Chesapeake Bay, or the salination and siltation of the Colorado River in Arizona, the conclusion is inescapable: U.S.
|
From page 174... ...
in fish, for example, contributed to the dramatic decline in predatory bird populations, such as the peregrine falcon, osprey, and bald eagle, during the 1960S and 1970S. Many of the public water supplies drawn from surface waters in states with significant agricultural production, for example, lowa and Ohio, have detectable levels of pesticides.
|
From page 175... ...
Public policy develops only in response to a perceived need for policy, but the agrarian myth of good stewardship blinds us to the need for such a policy. It is hardly surprising that production agriculture is commonly exempted from statutes that might otherwise serve to ameliorate environmentally destructive agricultural practices.
|
From page 176... ...
An environmentally responsible curriculum, I argue, should provide two things: relevant understanding and appropriate analytical skills. Such a curriculum should provide students with an understanding of both the scope and the magnitude of agriculture-related environmental problems and of federal (and perhaps state)
|
From page 177... ...
policy evaluation skills, that is, the ability to evaluate proposed environmental policies. One would hope that students would also acquire certain rudimentary policy formulation skills, that is, the ability to formulate a policy solution to an identified problem; however, this does not strike me as a reasonable goal for an undergraduate curriculum.
|
From page 178... ...
if students are to understand and participate in this debate, they need an adequate grounding in ethical theory; they also need to know how and where ethical theory bears on the policy process. One may wonder how our forefathers were able to get by so well with so little formal education in ethical theory.
|
From page 179... ...
Farmers argue that they should be permitted continued use of water at historical levees by virtue of their rights to the water; municipal and industrial users argue that they should be permitted use of this same water by virtue of the fact that their use of this water will maximize social welfare. There need be no factual dispute that scientific or technical expertise can adjudicate; the dispute here is normative in character: Should society allocate this resource to farmers, or should it allocate it to municipal and industrial users7 Means The knowledge that the foregoing goals presumes (induding knowledge of production agricultural practices and systems, farm economy, and farm structure; environmental risk and risk management; the policy process; and ethical theories)
|
From page 180... ...
Sections A and B are intended to motivate and justify a course on ethics and environmental policy Courses Constituting Part of Cook College's General Graduation Requirements Perspectives on Agriculture and the Environment Social and Ecological Aspects of Modern Agriculture Human Responses to Chemicals in the Environment A Systems Approach to Environmental and Agricultural Issues Environmental issues in the United States Natural Hazards Introduction to Systems Thinking and the Systems Approach Economics of World Food Problems Economic Growth, Man, and Environment Elements of Environmental Pollution Conservation of Natural Resources Health and Environment in America Population, Resources, and Environment Energy and Society Urban Society and Environment Culture and the Environment Politics of Environmental Issues Social Responses to Environmental Problems Social and Ecological Aspects of Health and Disease Conservation Ecology Environmental Ethics 180
|
From page 181... ...
But the key to faculty involvement, especially in larger researchoriented universities, is research opportunity: The curriculum under development must open up opportunities for new research. The requirement that proposed curricula generate research opportunities relates directly to a second sort of support that is crucial to the development of an environmentally responsible curriculum: There must be adequate research support to foster the develop 181
|
From page 182... ...
Finally, the successful development of an environmentally responsible curriculum in colleges of agriculture requires what might be dubbed adequate extension support. The curricul urn needs input from the field to ensure that it addresses real problems and equips students with the skills to handle these problems.
|
From page 183... ...
Environmentalists are sharply divided on the question of the proper goals of environmental policy: On the one side are the Upreservationists," who argue that we have an obligation to preserve the natural environment in its Unatural" state, while on the other side are the Conservationists," who argue that we have a right, perhaps even an obligation, to make optimal use of environmental/natural resources. What one takes to be the proper goals of such policy influences both what one takes to be the salient ethical issues and what one takes to be the appropriate tools and techniques for dealing with issues that one recognizes.
|
From page 184... ...
4) how ethics and policy fit together, discussing how ethical theory bears on public policy, how ethics figures in the policy process, rights-based (structure-focused)
|
From page 185... ...
A fundamental ethical issue in environmental ethics asks about the levels of risk that we should find acceptable. Readings: Portney, P., ed.
|
From page 186... ...
Matthews promoted the theme that students must be able to recognize ethical issues and how they fit into the policy process. In order to do this, they must understand policy processes and the two primary ethical theories used in the policy process: rights-based and consequentialist.
|
From page 187... ...
Courses are offered at Texas A&M University; Cornell University; the University of Florida; California Polytechnic State University, San LUiS Obispo; the University of Maryland; and Rutgers University, among others.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.