Abstract

Current facts about soil erosion, groundwater “mining,” and impact of toxic substances suggest a resource crisis in our farming system. Yet traditional checks on the exploitation of farmland, capsulized in the “stewardship ethic,” proceed from too limited a viewpoint to adequately address the root of the exploitation and proffer an alternative. After briefly examining the stewardship ethic, I consider the developmentof a “partnership ethic” to guide the use of land for farming which builds its essential elements out of the reflections of feminist thinkers on the relationship between humankind and nature. Instead of using “rights” language to express the ethic, I develop a theory of appropriate use analogous to the appropriate use of another person’s capabilities-i.e., that such moral use should respect and not destroy the other and that it should return something of value to the other in exchange for the use. Finally, those principles are examined for their practical implications for farmland use and national farm policy