Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
the survivors had sussed that their best tactic was to remain on the pond, because sports
hunters don't shoot sitting ducks.
Singer's proposal of 'contraception for wild animals' is perhaps the best option for ve-
gans who want to maintain wildness. However it is not necessarily as simple as it sounds.
The feral camels in the Australian bush, descended from animals imported to carry bales of
wool, are now 'the wildest camel herd in the world', largely because nobody in the country
which pioneered 120 foot transcontinental 'road-trains' has any use for ships of the desert
any longer. There are already a million of them, and left to their own devices would double
in number every ten years, so they are culled by marksmen from a helicopter. Interviewed
on Radio 4, Tony Peacock of the University of Canberra commented:
Nobody would like to do it with birth control more than I - but it's not possible.
Our co-operative research centres studied birth control of wildlife for well over a dec-
ade and we spent probably in excess of AUS$80 million in research funds, but it just
doesn't work well enough. You still have the issue of accessing the animals. Unless
they are very easily accessible and very high value it's just impossible to do. 12
Birth control of wild animals may become easier and more affordable in the future,
but that prospect raises other issues. It sails worryingly close to genetic engineering,
and would probably lead to domestication through a more sinister route. If we let
scientists manipulate the fertility of wild animals they will inevitably start fiddling
around with their genes, and before long, we risk finding large sections of the evol-
utionary process controlled by scientists - and in a vegan society, by scientists who
might disapprove of speciesist activities such as predation. Left to their devices the
lamb might indeed be lying down with the lion. Such an evolutionary outcome would
presumably be acceptable to Singer, who not only coined the term speciesism, but is
also a forthright advocate of genetic modification.
Singer omits to mention two other existing methods of pest control which, along with
guns, are commonly used by farmers. The first of these is that adopted by the US Army in
Vietnam - defoliation. Destroy the enemy's habitat, so there is nowhere for them to hide,
and soon you outnumber them. Farmers nowadays do not spend hours on a tractor flailing
hedges and fighting back the advance of woodland for the hell of it, but because the more
cover you provide, the more pests you harbour. Plant peas or wheat in a small field half-
surrounded by woodland and the chances are that pigeons will eat all your pea seed and
badgers roll your wheat. Plant acre upon acre of them in the middle of an arable prairie,
and there will never ever be enough pests to make any impact upon your crop.
 
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