Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
In truth, such an ethic is what makes us human - the recognition of,
and respect for, these limits. Freedoms are vital, but we have obligations
and responsibilities, too. If we accept that we (as global communities) are
an intricate part of something, or that something is a part of us (just as
our livers or lungs are part of our bodies), it is then absurd to engage in
action that endangers a component of the system, since the whole will
suffer. The Amazon is not a part of me, so I may destroy it. Yet if I do
so, the consequences for the atmosphere are severe, and in the end I will
suffer. Leopold understood the connection between economies and
nature:
I realize that every time I turn on an electric light, or ride on a Pullman, or pocket
the unearned investment on a stock or a bond, or a piece of real estate, I am 'selling
out' to the enemies of conservation. . . When I pour cream in my coffee, I am helping
to drain a marsh to graze, and to exterminate the birds of Brazil. When I go birding
or hunting in my Ford, I am devastating an oil field, and re-electing an imperialist
to get me rubber. 5
These choices matter in today's food system. Each time we buy food, our
choices make a difference to nature and communities somewhere - though
there is perhaps a danger of overstating the power of consumers in the
face of structural economic constraints. We are connected within a much
larger system, and we can make these connections work to the good - if
we wish. Albert Howard was one of the most influential of British
scientists to take a holistic view of the connections between nature and
people. He spent 26 years in India, and developed the Indore Process in
which modern scientific knowledge was applied to ancient methods. He
called for a restoration of agriculture based upon an improvement to the
health of the whole system, saying that:
The birthright of all living things is health. This law is true for soil, plant, animal
and humans: the health of these four is one connected chain. Any weakness or defect
in the health of any earlier link in the chain is carried on to the next and succeeding
links, until it reaches the last, namely us. 6
What do we need to do differently? Perhaps the most compelling of Aldo
Leopold's essays is a short, but brilliant, piece entitled 'Thinking Like a
Mountain', in which he details the relationship between the wolf, deer and
mountain in Arizona. He first recalls his own shooting of a mother wolf
caring for a tumbling pack of cubs: 'in those days, we never heard of passing up
a chance to kill a wolf' , and then mourns their loss and his earlier lack of
understanding. He goes on to describe the consequences of eliminating
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