This principle deals with the nature of values and the values of nature. Despite the extensive amount of research on this topic, policy makers often muddle the different types of value, making ‘category errors’ that result in some strange decision-making with unintended consequences.

This case study examines the collision of values between organic farming and the lobby for release of genetically modified organisms into the environment. It also draws on two other cases that involve the fallout from Chernobyl and asbestos.