ABSTRACT

The main applications of an ethics for a technological civilization in Hans Jonas’ work concern both the environment and the then emerging applications of genome manipulation capabilities. In both cases Jonas denounces the threats resulting from the compulsive character of technological innovations in these two areas. This denunciation is supported by the elaboration of a “philosophical biology” that criticizes the dualism that, since Descartes, has promoted the radical separation between thuman beings and the rest of nature. This article seeks to show that this separation is at the root of the wave of innovations in the current agri-food system, whose technological frontier seeks precisely to emancipate human food from its dependence on soil, climate and animals. The risk of this fissure between food and nature it fails to address the main challenge of the contemporary agri-food system, which lies in its increasing monotony.

KEYWORDS:
Dualism; Agri-food system; Artificial proteins; Ethics; Meat; Technological innovation