a response to libertarianism. This is because, while libertarianism provides for the maximum amount of human freedom, it does not require a person to help others. It also leads to the grossly uneven distribution of wealth. A well known egalitarian philosopher is John Rawls. When focusing on agriculture, what this translates into is the uneven distribution of land and food. While both utilitarian and libertarian approaches to agriculture ethics could conceivably rationalize this mal-distribution, an egalitarian approach typically favors equality whether that be equal entitlement and/or opportunity to employment or access to food. However, if one recognizes that people have a right to something, then someone has to supply this opportunity or item, whether that be an individual person or the government. Thus, the egalitarian view links land and water with the right to food. With the growth of human populations and the decline of soil and water resources, egalitarianism could provide a strong argument for the preservation of soil fertility and water. Ecological or systems approach In addition to utilitarian, libertarian, and egalitarian philosophies, there are normative views that are based upon the principle that land has intrinsic value and positions coming out of an ecological or systems view. Two main examples of this are James Lovelock's Gaia hypothesis which postulates that the Earth is an organism and deep ecologists who argue that human communities are built upon a foundation of the surrounding ecosystems or the biotic communities. While these philosophies can be useful for guiding decision making on issues concerning land in general, they have limited usefulness when applied to agriculture because they privilege natural ecosystems and agricultural ecosystems are often considered not natural. One philosophy grounded in the principle that land has intrinsic value which is directly applicable to agriculture is Aldo Leopold's stewardship ethic or land ethic, in which an action is correct if it tends to "preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community". Similar to egalitarian-based land ethics, many of the above philosophies were also developed as alternatives to utilitarian and libertarian based approaches. Leopold's ethic is currently one of the most popular ecological approaches to agriculture commonly known as agrarianism. Other agrarianists include Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, J. Hector St. John de Crèvecœur (1735–1813), Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882), Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862), John Steinbeck (1902–1968), Wendell Berry (b. 1934), Gene Logsdon (b. 1932), Paul B. Thompson, and Barbara Kingsolver. References Agriculture