Ethical Discourse Concerning The Agricultural Industry In Third World Countries

Ethical Discourse Concerning the Automation of the Agricultural Industry in Third-World Countries
Improvements in agricultural technology are happening at an alarming rate. In the past ten years, there has been a push for automation and sensor controls. Many farms run by large corporations use everything from soil and crop sensors to variable rate swath control. These are now being implemented alongside machines that can perform the work of up to five or ten farmers.” In the United States farmers account for 2.2% of the population; the lowest level since before the Civil War.” (Ap.) In many developing countries, the agricultural sector makes up a large percentage of the GDP and employs the most people. The pay is low for most of these farmers,

When other sectors of the economy don’t experience the same growth, structural unemployment becomes a negative side-effect. The moral issue at hand is whether or not the introduction of agricultural automation will really benefit the nations concerned as a whole, not just the large corporations. The corporations always have a goal of maximizing profits, so if the corporation must fire employees working on the farm, it will. This often leads to an increase in the wage gap. Many small, private farms usually run by families, experience decreasing profit margins, because of their inability to compete in the market with the large corporations. Engineers must be careful in introducing agricultural automation to developing countries, as this may adversely affect the citizens of developing nations. In this essay, I will introduce the topic of agricultural automation and its capabilities in depth. I will also have case studies of past introduction of agricultural technology in developing nations and the impact it has had on its people. Analysis of the moral issue will be done using line drawing techniques as well as examination through Kantian and virtue ethics. The