Abstract

A mostly rural state in the US Midwest, Iowa is a powerful and influential agricultural center. The state produces the most corn, soybeans (2nd), pork, eggs, and chicken in the US. Mass production has done severe and perhaps irreversible damage to persons, non-human animals, and the environment. Well-researched environmental solutions have been largely resisted as strategies. Resistance to such strategies is based on underlying mindsets that need a resolution beyond scientific solutions. In this article, we use the inductive argumentative method of inference to the best explanation to conclude that the mostly unabated damage to the environment by the Agricultural System (AS) is best understood as tragic. The tragedy we attribute to the AS system is based on several factors originating in myths and hubris, eventually culminating in a total disregard for ecological harm. This article is a transdisciplinary attempt to comprehend the hubris in the AS and how it relates to environmental destruction. We argue that before we can even offer ecological solutions to reverse the damage done, we must alter ways of thinking and perceiving that perpetuate the mass production system. Such attempts at change turn out to be far-reaching because the mass production system overlaps with the political, economic, and social systems, all of which favor mass production.