Re: Social and political aspects

Kimberly Stoner (kstoner@caes.state.ct.us)
Mon, 12 Jul 1999 13:19:45 -0400

To Dale and Sanet:
I wonder to what extent the threat to wild nature comes from sustainable
agriculture, if we exclude lawns from our definition of agriculture. I was
just reading an article in Smithsonian Magazine (April 1999), where the
author states that lawns in this country occupy more land than any other
crop, including wheat and corn. As Bill Duesing described last week, many
of those lawns get powerful doses of pesticides and fertilizers, potentially
polluting the groundwater and running off into surface waters. I suspect
that "well-maintained" lawns are one of the most hostile environments for
wild nature of all kinds -- probably only asphalt, which also takes up a
huge and expanding amount of land area in this country, is more hostile.

In Connecticut, the Department of Environmental Protection actually manages
several of its wildlife reserves as farmland -- growing grain, cutting hay
(on carefully determined schedules for the benefit of wildlife), etc. --
because this habitat is rapidly disappearing in Connecticut and is necessary
to the survival of many species of birds and other wildlife.

Kim Stoner

-----Original Message-----
From: Wilson, Dale <WILSONDO@phibred.com>

Snip
>> Some of this discussion (snip) seems to reflect
>> agendas well away from the core business of sustainable
>> farming...
>
>IMO, discrete values and agendae need to be unpacked and discussed. Some
>people resist unpacking sustainability because certain values they hold
dear
>might not garner support on their own.
>
>> Some of the rules and definitions tossed around seem to drift
>> off from a central concern to see that exploitation of the
>> earth..
>
>Yes. This must be the central concern. If this waits until all
human-human
>problems are fixed, wild nature will be a thing of the past.
>Snip

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