Ecological Ethics (生態倫理): An ethic of leaving no one alone, from Japanese teikei and community supported agriculture

This paper records and states in English the concept of ecological ethics (生態倫理) that I have developed since 2018 from long-term fieldwork with organic farmers and consumers in Takahata, Yamagata, and comparative research on community supported agriculture (CSA) in Europe and Asia. Ecological ethics does not start from a divide between nature and humans, and then ask how to weigh one against the other. It starts from the connection that divides neither, which people come to know through the body and through shared practice. Its core is a relation that leaves no one alone: receiving the gifts of ecosystems, sharing them with care, and walking with the most vulnerable. I give the definition from my earlier work, outline its features, distinguish it from common forms of environmental ethics, and relate it to the concept of Awai Commons.