Agroecology and Natural Law

This paper engages agroecology by drawing on natural law reflection. Agroecology considers the agricultural field as an ecosystem (an agroecosystem), designing and managing agriculture on this basis. My purpose is to show how certain strands of natural law reflection offer important tools for theological and ethical engagement with this approach to agriculture. More specifically, I argue that while agroecology can help concretize natural law’s claims about natural order, natural law can help further develop agroecological insights about ecological order and its implications for agriculture, as well as bring to the surface some of agroecology’s underlying anthropological assumptions and political implications.

Duke Scholars

Author Matthew Philipp Whelan Divinity School