Several people have reported that Pollan's piece has gone viral and has been one of the most read and discussed and shared articles in a long while.  Maybe we need more discussion of morals and ethics and less of economic values.

Save your community: Cut greenhouse gas emissions 5% per year.

Adam.  Values are the  fractals by which we all interact in the symbiotic human herd.  One buffaloe is frightened, it jumps and jostles another, the wave spreading by the fractal expressed in each individual buffalo's reaction, the herd start fleeing the supposed danger.

Whoops, it's a cliff.  Too late to turn.

A human example:

Donuts taste good.  people eat donuts when they see other people eating them.

Soon there are donut stores everywhere.  Donut stocks soar, Crispy Kreme was a big bubble stock!

Obesity rates soar, drug company stocks soar on the wave of treatment.  

The moral of the story?  Indulging in too many donuts is a character weakness to be avoided, all good people shall have this inculcated from birth.

The values (fractals) of human beings that are expressed?  Life is short, momentary experience of a grease and sugar high is most important to me right now.  But later I'll realize I value being thin, healthy, and happy.  And consume something that fullfills my craving to experience the world, like the feeling of running down the trail.  

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Adam, you say the environmental "movement" (whatever that is) is not lacking in discussion of morals.  My comment was that maybe we need more of these, not less.  Do you happen to know the proper level of discussions of morality for a "movement"?  

It's hard not to read your piece and think about whether and how it might relate to your position as a seller of carbon offsets.

Save your community: Cut greenhouse gas emissions 5% per year.

"Morality" and "virtue" are certainly NOT synonymous.  There are systems of morality which make little or no emphasis on the virtues of moral agents.  And, on the other hand, moral agents may be said to exhibit certain virtues, but their conduct may still be seen to be deficient, or even evil, by the moral perspective of contemporary observers.

An example of the latter: The conduct pertaining to the so-called Protestant Work Ethic, which historically underlies much of the practice of modern entrepreneurs and other businessfolk, is characterized by certain virtues.  But within the very societies in which that Ethic flourishes, other, more fundamental ways of ethical evaluation might judge the practisers of those virtues to be monstrous and perverse, and the fruits of their actions to be destructive.

"Value" is a general term common to many types of analysis in which comparison has a part.  Pollan was very careful to refer to "economic value."  But there are a number of other applications of value that are implicit in his appeal to cultivating gardens: The moral value of gardening might be the most fundamental, but that would also include aesthetic value, social value, medical value, and environmental value, for starters.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.