I feel that agriculture shouldn't be anathema to ecology or the environmental movement. It is a quintessential setting in which to study how intensive agriculture affects not only biodiversity but ecological and environmental processes, e.g., trophic relationships, pollination, nutrient and water cycling, hog-nosed snakes, and so on. I feel ecologists must use this information to compare different types of agricultural practices in order to determine, among other things, which is the most sustainable, which lead to higher biodiversity, etc.
Many agricultural practices are not only damaging to biodiversity (not to ecology or environmentalism) but are unsustainable for the long term for everyone, including the farmers themselves. Several of the world's aquifers are being depleted due to overpumping and many lands are becoming less productive despite our technological aims to the contrary. Of course, I eat some food produced by large scale monoculture growing corporations, but not if I have a reasonable choice. My point is that just because these agricultural products are consumed does not mean scientists should not study their effects or complain about unsustainable, destructive activities. No ecologist should simply "embrace" unnecessarily damaging practices because a few shareholders are profiting. Much of the world is clearly in need of more food, but some have too much. Over half of the U.S. population is considered obese. Political and socio-economic concerns may have more to do with world-wide food availability than ecological ones. I feel we all need to be careful not to "look down our nose at agriculture" in general but focus on which types of agriculture are necessary and sustainable, which promote biodiversity, and which do not. Great thread. ~ Frank Frank Marenghi, M.Sc. Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources Delaware State University Dover, Delaware, USA > Date: Mon, 31 Aug 2009 11:46:14 -0400 > From: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Notwithstanding that Agriculture is Anathema to > Ecology, Consider Permaculture > To: [email protected] > > "I always wonder if they they know the difference between ecology (the > science) and environmentalism (the "green" advocacy movement)." > > So true!!! > > I will always remember the first lecture for the first ecology course I > took. The professor spent almost the entire hour driving home the difference > between the science of ecology and the environmental movement. > > This is such a critically important point! _________________________________________________________________ Hotmail® is up to 70% faster. Now good news travels really fast. http://windowslive.com/online/hotmail?ocid=PID23391::T:WLMTAGL:ON:WL:en-US:WM_HYGN_faster:082009
