Monoscapes - Agri-culture: Reconnecting People, Land and Nature - page 47

When I use the term modern to describe current agricultural systems,
I mean it in the philosophical rather than temporal sense. Such systems
are certainly modern because they are what we have now. But, more
importantly, they are modernist because they are single-code systems.
Kurukawa was also a designer of the 1981 Royal Academy exhibition in
London on The Art of the Edo Period , and he says it perfectly:
I do not reject the modern by any means. . . But when I see how rigid it has become,
how it has lost all flexibility, I am forced to ally myself with those who attack the
weaknesses of the modernist doctrine.
A modernist agriculture is single coded - it does one thing (produces
food) and it does it well. It draws on no local traditions; it is placeless,
inflexible and monocultural. Diverscapes, by contrast, have more elements,
more connections between these elements, and thus greater potential for
synergies. 47 The post-modern is more symbiotic, and according to
Kurukawa, 'from the intermediary space between these opposing poles many creative
possibilities will well up' . 48
Landscapes are commons; yet, today they are increasingly shaped by
non-local and global interests. These commons can never respond to the
particular needs of the local, nor be able to change direction rapidly when
something goes wrong. The landscape commons have been appropriated
to a vision of efficient 'mono-use' and 'mono-culture'. We have to find
new ways in which to claim back these commons, and to step outside the
conservation-production dualism. 49 Who tells the landscape stories
matters, as does who constructs the visions. If it is the powerful, defining
a vision for the landscape and putting up the money, then we will see one
type of outcome. If it is many individuals and small groups developing
genuinely radical visions, then we will get something very different.
Repossessing Natural Places
The term landscape has come to mean a pictorial representation of the
countryside. Paradoxically, though, timeless and cultural landscapes may
be allowing deep inequalities to persist. Thus, a landscape conserved
without social change is only half the picture. Transformations are needed
in both the natural and social spheres, and in their interactions and
connections. Ultimately, transformations are needed in the way we think.
Writing in the mid 19th century, Thoreau was worried about our
destruction of nature, and why protecting, conserving and understanding
it mattered. He is particularly famous for his public departure from the