MARY K. HENDRICKSON and HARVEY S. JAMES, JR. THE ETHICS OF CONSTRAINED CHOICE: HOW THE INDUSTRIALIZATION OF AGRICULTURE IMPACTS FARMING AND FARMER BEHAVIOR (Accepted in revised form October 14, 2004) ABSTRACT. The industrialization of agriculture not only alters the ways in which agricultural production occurs, but it also impacts the decisions farmers make in important ways. First, constraints created by the economic environment of farming limit what options a farmer has available to him. Second, because of the industri- alization of agriculture and the resulting economic pressures it creates for farmers, the fact that decisions are constrained creates new ethical challenges for farmers. Having fewer options when faced with severe economic pressures is a very different situation for farmers than having many options available. We discuss the implica- tions of constrained choice and show that it increases the likelihood that farmers will consider unethical behavior. KEY WORDS: agricultural industrialization, market concentration, farmer ethics, constrained behavior 1. INTRODUCTION We are interested in how the industrialization of agriculture has altered the ways in which agricultural production occurs and the ways these new pro- duction systems impact farmer-level decision-making in ethically important ways. First, constraints created by the economic environment of farming limit what options a farmer has available to him. For example, poultry production contracts restrict the abilities of producers to adopt alternative production practices, such as production techniques that are environmen- tally friendly (Hinrichs and Welsh, 2003). Thus, producers who otherwise would have adopted environmentally friendly production practices are re- stricted from doing so. Similarly, the genetic modification of seeds coupled with restrictive licensing requirements imposed by technology companies limits the ability of farmers to practice traditional farming activities, such as saving seeds or cross-breeding plants to develop seed varieties that are efficient for local environmental conditions. Moreover, because the use of GM seeds is becoming more prominent in agriculture, the distribution outlets for farmers who choose not to plant GM seeds are being limited, Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics (2005) 18: 269–291 DOI 10.1007/s10806-005-0631-5 Ó Springer 2005