| dc.description.abstract | In Environmentally ethical rural policy we have sought to find a solid ethical as well as aesthetic basis from ecological food production for securing the life and vitality of rural life in Finland. Liberation ecology combines the approach used by liberation theology with ecology. A decision made by an individual farmer could be the start of a new rural policy based on environmental ethics. At the same time, it could help people to free themselves from the "straightjacket" of the market economy through increased ecological awareness.
The environmentally ethical viewpoint is always a human viewpoint. Although we can artificially isolate in our mind some absolute values in nature, this valuation is based on human values. Ethics and aesthetics go hand in hand. What we perceive as ethically acceptable, appears to us as beautiful. Word "rural" give us many possibilities to look at agricultural landscapes. What we see, we see through cultural frames, through our attitudes, morality and knowledge.
Liberation ecology as a possible scenario for new rural policy Agricultural policy and rural policy are facing difficult decisions both in Finland and elsewhere in Europe. Agriculturers who have converted to ecological farming can point to a new optional direction. Knowledge and awareness of the ecological processes of nature may function as a liberating element in the search for a better future for the Finnish countryside. We call it liberation ecology, thus combining the latest ecological knowledge with the concepts of liberation theology employed in Latin America.
On liberation theology In Latin America the liberation theology emerged with the mission to defend the weak, hungry and oppressed people against the dictatorships and the indifference of the Catholic church. The home of the liberation theology is in the local communities, interpreting the Bible in solving their everyday problems. What separates it from the official Catholic church is its attitude towards salvation, sin and it's concept of God. In the liberation theology the history of man is a unity; the poor and the oppressed have their right to be liberated from the suffering already in the temporal life. Other central issues in liberation theology include the priority of practice, contextuality and justice.
From liberation theology to liberation ecology
Ecology is today's theology -a sort of survival technique for man. The forces of the market economy, with money as their god, exert many kinds of pressures on man. The accumulation of property is a virtue in a capitalistic society, but the consumer is saddled with the oppressing sin of destroying natural resources, which makes life painful in an aburd way: "You should feel guilty and responsible, but you must not jump out of the treadwheel "!
Instead of an individualistic conception of sin, liberation ecology emphasizes structural sin. In liberation ecology the use of artificial fertilizers is not the primary sin, because the present system even encourages intense fertilizing. A joyless attitude, stressing the decision of an individual, easily leads to an idealization of extreme self-denial and puritanism. If ecological farming is categorically taken as the sole right alternative, it may alienate people using the ordinary farming methods from ecological principles.
Priority of practice In liberation theology an active commitment to the promotion of justice is the first step and the philosophical thinking only the "second step". The application of liberation ecology to agriculture would mean commitment to the farming methods that help in sustaining the production ability of soil and the diversity of nature.
Contextuality
All liberation ecology (theology) in the last resort is bound to a certain culture, language, time and human experience. Here lies the continual tension between the contextual and the universal. General and universal with no connection to the specific remain humanly thin and superficial. A good example is the simultaneous concern for the depopulation of the countryside and the desire to expand the size of farms.
Love and justice
Essential in the liberation ecology is the love for life. Life is understood as one indivisible process, involving man and nature. Thus the ethics of the environmental protection, for example, the ethics of an individual ecological farmer means the loving and respecting of man. The "fair treatment" of nature and arable land therefore reflects the fair treatment of man. | fi |
