CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2014
| Author | Hansen, Erik Joseph |
|---|---|
| Title | Agricultural and Biodiversity Beyond Agricultural Biodiversity |
| Summary | This paper critically examines the relationship agriculture has with biodiversity at a conceptual level. I argue that biodiversity as a concept is antagonistic to the concept of agriculture, and that efforts that claim otherwise are misguided, misleading, and not in the best interest of those concerned with either biodiversity or agriculture. In order to successfully show the antagonistic nature between biodiversity and agriculture this thesis expands upon the questions: ‘what is biodiversity?’, ‘what is agriculture?’, and ‘how are they interrelated?’. The lack of an accepted definition of biodiversity constitutes a significant challenge to such an undertaking, and to overcome this hurdle I develop the concept, ‘the idea of biodiversity’. The ‘idea of biodiversity’ is biodiversity at a conceptual level and is derived from analyzing both the common usage definitions of the term as well as the connotations of how it is used in practice. With the ‘idea of biodiversity’ as my guide I show the relationship between biodiversity and agriculture as fundamentally antagonistic. Once this is established, I then bring forth and critically examine the term ‘agrobio diversityȁ 9;, and use it as an example of the extent to which the relationship between the two concepts is misunderstood in practice. I conclude that the realities of agriculture are so inconsistent with biodiversity that it is superior from both an agricultural and an environmental standpoint to recognize the inharmonious nature between biodiversity and agriculture so that they can be properly considered and managed. |
| Supervisor | Watt, Alan |
| Department | Environment Sciences and Policy MSc |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2014/hansen_erik.pdf |
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