At the forefront of international concerns about global legislation and regulation, a host of noted environmentalists and business ethicists examine ethical issues in consumption from the points of view of environmental sustainability, economic development, and free enterprise.

Paul Thompson’s essay, “Agrarian Philosophy and Ecological Ethics,” [ 1 ] usefully highlights some of the defects in the now-dominant strands of environmental ethics. It offers an agrarian alternative that solves many of them. Thompson’s agrarianism, in turn, has its own limitations, yet it nonetheless merits close attention.