The place of ethics in agricultural sciences

In this study, it is aimed to question the philosophical and ethical aspects of industrial agriculture and animal husbandry practices which cause deep debates in society today. First of all, theoretical ethics research was conducted and it was determined which areas of ethics should be discussed. As a result of this search; In the practical ethical approaches of agricultural practices, it was found right to question environmental ethics including bioethics. In the query performed; in the field of industrial agriculture and animal husbandry; The global structure of production and market conditions, chemicals used in agriculture, breeding and genetically modified organism applications, animal rights, animal welfare and alternative farming systems are discussed. It was ensured that 12 stakeholders participated in the discussion. Stakeholders; vegan, vegetarian, environmental activist, animal breeders, farmers, agriculture and animal husbandry. A qualitative research was conducted using semi-structured interview technique with stakeholders. In addition to 57 questions, unstructured questions were posed in the qualitative research and their views were analyzed. Stakeholders; ethical attitudes, environmental ethics approaches, thoughts about environment, thoughts about agriculture, opinions about industrial agriculture practices, ideas about animal rights and welfare. In the results of working; an ethical inquiry was made by adding the opinions of the stakeholders on the ethical and environmental ethics approaches put forward in the theoretical research. With this questioning, ethical questions and main axes that will form moral principles in agriculture were determined and a projection about moral principles was tried to be put forward. After the researches and interviews conducted within the scope of the thesis, it was concluded that there is no sustainability of agricultural practices designed with a humancentered understanding. However, it was also found that living or environment-based ethical attitudes could not open space for the feasibility of agricultural practices. In this context, it has been concluded that the axes to be established in the field of agricultural ethics should demonstrate a synthesis of these three approaches. While creating ethical axes of agricultural practices, general ethical attitude as in environmental ethics theories; teleological, deontological and axiological theories. In this context, it was concluded that the main backbone of the principles in the field of agricultural ethics should be established and detailed accordingly. In the conclusion part of the thesis, the main axes that are proposed to move industrial agriculture to a more ethical ground are presented in detail. Keywords: Agricultural ethics, ethics, agriculture, philosophy