Pragmatics and Farming
Ethics signifies little or nothing except in the presence or absence of pragmatism. It is a value that is to be employed together with all other basic values, in order to indicate the nature of those activities and things that fit alternative societies and the ways in which the universe is perceived and valued.
With respect to farming and the general usage of land, we are now [2019] at a critical juncture in human history. The advent of AI and Robotics means that old forms of human society that depended on direct labour of men and animals, circumscribed by nature, is breaking down. The Feudal society was intrinsically local and involved everyone. In the near future land may be gobbled up by wealthy individuals or corporations and, with robotic labour, serve no benefit other than that of the owners. Almost anything is conceivable as the purpose or lack of it for the common man.
Defining the matter in the three obvious ways. What has been portrayed so far is fair description of a technological tyranny of greed.
On the other hand, if property is quite remarkably managed so as to be shared by all, or the major part of people, in an egalitarian way. At least every family or small group will be reminiscent of what William Morris advocated. But in a anarchistic or autonomous society they would have no responsibility for each other, and very little of a coordinated ethos should problems arise, as we have today environmentally.
On the third hand, a genuinely altruist Morris society, would have a positive social ethos defining how freedom is to be used in a responsible cooperative society. It is virtually certain that such a society would ‘own’ land and property corporately to be used and distributed according to need and aptitude. On a non-profit making basis. Such a society may be expected to respect the natural environment and universe, and in particular respect living creatures according to their nature, or level of sentience and sapience. A world with a radically reduced population, and with considerable proportion of its area left to nature, may be expected.