Call for Papers

APSAFE 2025

Food and Agricultural Ethics
in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

September 18-19, 2025
Seoul, Korea

We are excited to announce that, in the face of rising urbanization, climatic emergencies, and sociopolitical tensions, APSAFE 2025 will examine solutions to transform our food systems in a fair and sustainable manner.

Social and environmental developments are deeply impacted by and closely related to our food systems. The growing obstacles they encounter now are frequently referred to as “wicked problems”—difficult situations that lack easy answers. A thorough grasp of the various and subtle relationships that exist between food systems and other domains, such as economics, industry, culture, health, livelihoods, and nature, is necessary to address these issues. A promising platform for promoting such awareness and motivating significant action is APSAFE.

We warmly invite producers, distributors, policymakers, community activists, researchers, students, and all those passionate about food ethics to join us. Together, let us unpack the implicit assumptions and knowledge that underpin our food systems. This is an opportunity to cultivate shared insights and build a collaborative network committed to shaping a more equitable and sustainable future.

Conference Topics

Food Policies

・Vulnerability of food systems
・Consumer-citizen food networks
・Diverse conceptions of food security
・Justice in the environment, climate, and culture
・Politics and ethics in distribution and trade, minorities, and indigenous peoples

Regenerating Agricultural Pluralism

・Correlation between food and culture
・Food sovereignty
・Right to seed saving
・Small-scale experimental agriculture
・Dialogue between agrarianism and industrialism

Planetary Health

・Environment as an ecosystem, synergy between rural, urban, and nature
・Livestock and breeding as the intersection of life and agriculture
・Breeding technology and ethics
・Evaluation of livestock well-being
・Veterinary ethics

Urbanization and Food Systems

・Similarities and differences between information and materials
・Ethics of logistics
・Breaking away from a purely capitalist approach oriented toward agglomeration
・Characteristics and valuations of decentralized distribution in the food system, ethical consumption, and transformations of food waste

Future Foodscapes

・Cultural interactions of biotechnology and agroecology (vertical and urban agriculture, food taboos, veganism, new self-sufficiency)
・Food engineering ethics and food culture
・”New” foods (eg, insects, cultured meat, ancient foods)
・Ethics of genome editing

Water Sphere and Food Procurement

・Politics and ethics of marine fisheries and aquaculture
・Ecological and human impacts of aquaculture systems
・Potential of aquatic-agriculture (seaweed – food, fertilizer, medicine, ecosystem restoration, carbon capture, etc.)
・Rights of aquatic species

Wild food basket

・Caring for what is edible
・Sustainability of hunting and gathering
・Livestock-wildlife interactions
・Cultural diversity of involvement in the wild
・Wild and space for indigenous peoples

We welcome abstracts on agricultural and food ethics issues in Asia-Pacific contexts. Today, food systems are transitioning, driven by new technologies and globalization on the one hand and environmental degradation and the climate crisis on the other. In the meantime, social and health problems flow from the rapid urbanization and the replacement of traditional agriculture and food supply by large-scale modern farming and processed foods. Inevitably, human conflicts exacerbate all of these problems. APSAFE aims to bring these global issues into our context and explore the traditions , futures, concerns, and solutions of agriculture and food in the unique conditions of the Asia-Pacific region.

Important Dates

May 30, 2025  Acceptance/Rejection Notification

Jun.  30, 2025 Early Registration ends

Aug. 21 , 2025  Online Registration Ends (Registration is possible on-site.)

Sep. 18-19, 2025 Conference

Registration

Join us for APSAFE 2025 to explore the latest developments in Agricultural and Food ethics. (available in June, 2025)

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Program

Explore the exciting sessions and events planned for APSAFE 2025. (available in July, 2025)

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Venue

The conference will take place at the Seoul National University of Education, located in the heart of Seoul.

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