From John Etherington
Your correspondent Janet Godfrey’s question “How are farmers damaging their
land and spoiling the landscape?” really demands an answer
(15 January, p 50).
In 1939 Arthur Tansley published The British Islands and their
Vegetation. Amongst its classic gems were his descriptions of limestone and
chalk grassland, and Britain’s uniquely diverse heathlands and moorlands. During
the past 60 years, almost all this magnificent vegetation has been lost in the
lowlands and much degraded in the hills, a victim of subsidised arable
agriculture, fertilisers and pesticides, or grassland “improvement” and
inappropriate grazing.
Tansley’s magnum opus might be compared with Nikolaus Pevsner’s great work,
the Buildings of England series. A proposal to demolish Winchester
Cathedral for a supermarket or a parish church for a car park would face furious
opposition and certain rejection. Yet a building can be moved or, in a sense,
recreated. The species diversity and complex web of food chains of an ecosystem
will be destroyed for centuries, possibly for ever.
We are ill educated about our living heritage, and fail to protect it from
corporate vandalism. Not only have farmers damaged their land and spoiled the
landscape, they have also driven many species perilously close to the brink of
extinction and often for little purpose other than collection of subsidy.
Advertisement
No one is suggesting we stop farming, but rather, simply that we release it
from the stranglehold of the chemicals industry with truthful economic analysis,
and use a bit of common sense.
Pembrokeshire
