Agricultural Industrialization: A Metaeconomics Look at the Metaphors by Which We Live

Agriculture continues to be driven by rapid technological change on the base of a particular kind of value system. This path produces an abundance and variety of high-quality food and success for many. It also produces externalities, not the least of which is the sense of gloom among youth who might otherwise pursue food system careers. Perhaps we need to be carefully examining the values implicit within the invisible hand, subjecting it to scientific scrutiny. One alternative is a kind of metaeconomics that focuses on moral inquiry, recognizing both a self-interest and a joint others-interest in the outcomes.