Ecological Armageddon....

[Janne]

It is the quest for cheap food that is the 'root of the evil'.
It makes farmer's life difficult, is bad for the environment and makes us fatter and fatter.
Cheap and beautiful. I recall a tv programme last year or mybe two, where a journo investigated the supermarket practices.
I vividly recall one farmer that grew a huge amount of Cauliflower (in UK). He showed what the supermarket that contracted his crop demanded. A huge % of the crop got rejected. A little bit too small, a little bit to large. Not white enough, not round enough.

He plowed down perfectly grown cauliflowers, lots and lots of them.

This utter criminal waste has been going on for decades. A friend of mine augmented her money during our studies 30+ years ago, by picking Tomatoes on a farm in Sweden. Most got rejected, they had to be blemish free, perfect shape and colour....
She used to take the rejects home, and give to her friends. I never bought a tomato during my studies.


A lot of modern people only eat Chicken breast. What about the rest?
Those Asian huge shrimp/prawns. Coastal devastation, chemical runoff into fresh waters and the seas.
For what? A piece of tasteless protein, laced with chemicals!
People do not care, the majority of them.

 

[WealdenWoodsman]

An argument could also be made that those very hedgerows are artificial themselves. The result of earlier (albeit centuries earlier) practices of changing the environment.

Certainly true, however hedgerows have developed a certain micro-environment and are now recognised as being of massive importance. Many species of flora and fauna are now only found along hedgerows due to depletion in habitat elsewhere. The role played by hedgerows in the UK should not be under estimated, (that is part of the problem...)

Along those lines coppice woodlands are, by definition, artificial. For thousands of years in the UK, coppicing has taken place, you would be hard pressed to find an ancient woodland in the UK which has not been coppiced at some time or another. This in effect 'destroyed' wild woodland and are we worse off because of these actions? Far from it. We are left with ecological masterpieces of adaptations and variety where species thrive in an 'artificial' environment. Bluebells being just one.

 

[Janne]

In the 1950's in Sweden, the agriculturally important part, Scania, lost basically all hedgerows and all wetlands. Most small streams got diverted into underground pipes.
We lost most birds, hares, foxes. The Stork vanished. The European Crayfish almost vanished.


Agricultural fields are virtually sterile, species wise. I even had problems finding Eartworms.

 

[RonW]

Gunnar Rundgren, a man with quite impressive credentials, wrote a book and keeps a blog on that very subject. "The global eating disorder"
He has some very interesting, insightful and confronting things to say....
His English blog: http://gardenearth.blogspot.fr/

 

[Janne]

That will be an interesting read tonight!

 

[Nomad64]

Certainly true, however hedgerows have developed a certain micro-environment and are now recognised as being of massive importance. Many species of flora and fauna are now only found along hedgerows due to depletion in habitat elsewhere. The role played by hedgerows in the UK should not be under estimated, (that is part of the problem...)

+1

Here’s a great old school hedging masterclass.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WoprVhpOKIk

 

[Janne]

Very interesting read! While reading that article I realized I have heard lots of him.
I will order his book.

 

[WealdenWoodsman]

+1

Here’s a great old school hedging masterclass.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WoprVhpOKIk

That's fantastic, thank you for showing. Effortless.

 

[Leshy]

Loving this thread 👍👍