We have no methods to test the safety and usefulness of any given technology comparable to the methods used by science to test its hypotheses. Around every field in which science is used for human benefit, public debate is not only inevitable, but essential. In pursuit of certain truth, science cannot regard popular ideas, Rickover argued. But technology is action and thus potentially dangerous. Unless it adapts itself to human interests, needs, values, and principles, that is unless it is humanistic, technology will do more harm than good.
Agriculture is probably humanity's oldest technology.
The application of our knowledge of biology, chemistry, and physics has unlocked nature's storehouse. But the instrumental use of nature to benefit humans is coming into question today in public debates, in the halls of legislatures, and in the voting booth. Despite the complexities of modern life, we can still trace the threads connecting our activities to other important patterns in the natural fabric. Our ability to produce food and fiber for expanding populations will depend to a large extent on our ability to maintain the planet's resource base. We need to develop agricultural production systems that work in harmony with natural processes rather than disrupting them.