by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
In a few centuries since the industrial revolution, modern humans have waged war on nature, destroying ecosystems and collapsing our one shared biosphere.
More often than not reference is being made to “overcoming Nature”, to “fight Nature”, and such like. The issue is, however, that if man ever wins that war, he, and that is all of us, is doomed.
While the Bible says that “G-d gave man dominion over the Earth” it also says that He placed man as a husbandman onto the Earth, that means as a caretaker and a caretaker does not fight his charge. Man is a shepherd of Creation and it is his task to look after it, care for it, and help it. Not make war on it.
Now more than ever modern man has the notion that he is the master, that he can alter Nature to do his bidding and with the knowledge of the sequence of DNA he has decided that he can create and this goes as far as to creating designer babies.
Frankenstein was not intended as a manual. It was, much like 1984, a warning. Not something to be emulated but something to be avoided. However, modern man in his megalomaniac state has decided that he can control science and Nature and has to battle Nature every step of the way.
In farming we see the same applied and rather than working with Nature and in harmony with Her everything is geared to destroying everything bar the crop grown or animals raised.
This can be seen equally with the Bovine TB issue where the badger is going to be hunted and culled in the UK rather than looking at the issue of animal husbandry and the failings of it.
The way it is understood by the Badger Trust and others is that the badger gets infested by cows that carry TB and the badger than becomes a carrier spreading the disease to other herds and amongst the badger population as a whole.
In our attempt to create ever higher yielding dairy and beef cattle we have bred disease resistance out of the animals and pump them full of antibiotics and other medicines in order keep them functioning, until they keel over from overproduction, in the case of dairy cattle.
When it comes to arable farming the same attitude prevails, that is to say to get more and more yield from the same piece of land without giving it a moment to rest. So, instead of old-fashioned ways of rotation cropping and leaving the land fallow science has stepped in claiming that chemical fertilizers are the be all and end all and the majority of farmers bought into this lock, stock and barrel.
The fact is, however, that the continuous application of chemical plant food does deplete the soil rather than feed the soil and green manure (part of leaving a field fallow) and application of other manure has gone out of the window and the dust-bowl effect ensues.
Only when we learn that we cannot win the war on Nature and that it will destroy ourselves will balance come back into the system and we need to work on that as well. It will not happen on its own.
Farming practices, gardening practices, and many more practices have to change and they have to change now if we want to survive and give our children and their children an chance to also live on this Planet.
Let's get back to basics and live with Nature and let's learn to respect Her once again.
© 2013
