Abstract
Agricultural ethics deals with issues that arise in the production and distribution of food and fiber commodities. It includes both cultivation of plants and husbandry of livestock. Recent work touches on health and aesthetic issues in food consumption. Many topics of contemporary interest relate to industrial production methods that have emerged since World War II, including the exhaustion of agriculture's resource base, famine, treatment and welfare of farmed animals, and the significance of genetic engineering in the food system. Issues relating to the abuse of labor and the ethical significance of smallholding or family farms have a much older philosophical tradition, including treatments by historical figures including Xenophon, Aristotle, Locke, and Hegel.