European Information Network - Ethics in Medicine and Biotechnology
A project of the European Commission,Quality of Life and Management of Living Resources Programme
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European Information Network - Ethics in Medicine and BiotechnologyA project of the European Commission,Quality of Life and Management of Living Resources Programme |
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| Date: | 20.03.2003 to 22.03.2003 |
| Location: | Toulouse France |
| Details: | Agricultural and food policies in developed countries have evolved from stated aims regarding the use of land and other rural resources, the economic status of farmers, fair access to adequate food supplies and appropriate levels of food safety. Although the details of many agrifood policies result from political mediation between competing interest groups, policy makers have assumed the existence of a broad social consensus regarding the unterlying aims of these policies. Still less have they been called upon to justify or adapt their policies in response to an ethically concerned public. In recent years, however, important ethical questions have arisen in connection with agrifood issues. These include public support for farmers and ist distribution; competition between farming and environmental interest; the impact of new technologies on sustainability and animal welfare; the globalisation of the agrifood complex. The growing capacity to control life, particularly through genetic engineering, and the huge efforts made by some multi-national companies to monopolise commercial use of these techniques are a further source of major public concern. These ethical questions cannot be addressed without identifying and analysing the conflicts in values that lie behind them. Other issues, of a more social nature, are also worth considering from the ethical point of view. One example is the social status of farmers caught between the increasingly integrated and concentrated input-supply industries and food processors/distributors; another is the role of public debate in the process of introducing innovations, keeping in mind that social acceptance and ethics are highly distinct concepts. Ethical concerns raise further questions at the interface with agrifood policy, such as: How can ethical concerns be effectively and reliably signalled to policy makers? What counts as an ethical consensus in matters of public governance? How might the weight to be attached to ethical criteria in complex policy decisions be determined? What is the appropriate level of decision-making - local, national, regional or international - for ethical input into policy formation on various agrifood issues? Is there a need for policy-making institutions to adapt in order better to incorporate society's ethical aspirations? The EurSafe meeting to be held in Toulouse (France) in March 2003 will address economic and technical developments in the agrifood sector from various ethical perspectives and in relation to policy within Europe and internationally. This may contribute to developing the agenda for future agrifood policies, and to identifying the relevance and scope of ethical considerations as a dimension of these policies. The invited lectures will address a range of levels relevant for policy making: local, national or regional (European Union, Mercosur, Alena ...), global; and the agrifood implications of various key ethical issues: individual and community rights, participation and representation in democratic societies, interdependencies between countries and regions, preservation of options for future generations, sustainability, public health implications of agrifood policies, distributive justice and fairness (both intra and international), intellectual property rights, appropriate elaboration and use of standards .... |
| Organizer: | INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique; Centre de Toulouse |
| Contact: | Présidence du Centre INRA de Toulouse Address: Chemin de Borde Rouge BP27 31326 Castanet Tolosan Cedex France Tel: +33 - (0)5 - 61 28 52 59 Fax: +33 - (0)5 - 61 28 52 80 Email: |
| Webpage: | http://capoul.toulouse.inra.fr/eursafe2003/programme/social.htm |
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