Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
In Scotland, the proposed 'Pleistocene Park' wilderness at Allandale, according to one
visitor, is 'scarred by new fences' some of which are electrified and sport DayGlo notices
stating 'Do Not Enter, Dangerous Wild Animals' - a matter which has come into confiict
with Scotland's right to roam laws. 17
Conservationists want to prevent humans wandering in and out of wilderness, because
they might be poachers or because they might end up as prey. Farmers and villagers want
to keep dangerous and nuisance animals inside wilderness areas. The easiest strategy for a
totally vegan society would probably be to fence off the agricultural land from the wilder-
ness on the same scale that the Australians erected their 'rabbit proof fence', or the Bot-
swanans their miles of veterinary fencing. This fence would need to be tough enough to
resist badger, wild boar or elephants, tall enough to prevent deer leaping over it, and well
enough policed to deter poachers. It would probably look something like the fence around
Glastonbury festival, sunk two feet into the ground. And it still wouldn't keep the pigeons
in.
The contrast would be stark. Within the flat grade one and two agricultural areas, there
would be a tendency to cultivate as much as possible, with only a small amount of land
devoted to shelterbelts, woods, hedgerows, banks and other landscape features. Strips of
grain and vegetables would be interspersed with strips of clover or lucerne, in a manner
reminiscent of the open field landscape that can be viewed in the more denuded areas of
Eastern Europe. Nut and fruit orchards would consist of close-planted, easy to pick, early
maturing dwarf varieties, for in a society without animals, there would be no incentive to
plant standards with a carpet of grass underneath them.
Whether the fence would surround the agricultural land or the wilderness would depend
upon the relative size of each; though for the wilderness to function properly it would have
to be large enough to support a viable population of predators. In fertile areas with high
populations there would be some reservoirs of pseudo-wilderness fenced off; in outlying re-
gions there might be islands of agriculture. But at some point between the two there would
be the main continuous fence dividing Nature on one side from vegan agriculture on the
other - the coastline where the ocean of wilderness washed against the shores of civiliza-
tion.
If this is starting to sound like a science fiction film it is because the chances of it actually
coming to pass are, mercifully, remote. The fence represents a logical conclusion of the ve-
gan project, rather than its most imminent expression. I bring it up because it lies at the end
of a path which some vegetarians and vegans are inviting us to take, and because it is the
most graphic symbol of the rift between humanity and nature which I suspect would arise
as a result of a refusal to eat meat.
Resigning from Nature
 
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