Experts say farmers have begun mowing down wildlife-rich pastures so that they can continue to claim European subsidies

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/feb/03/eu-farmers-plough-grasslands

 

 

 

“Farmers are being encouraged to plough up some of the most quintessential English landscapes so that they can continue to claim European subsidies, experts have warned.”

 

I fear that this is the beginning of a policy that will result in nearly every square inch of unpaved grounds ploughed up to “feed the masses” in other countries.

 

Is this the future we want to leave for our grandchildren?  Is this all there is to life, a planet organised around the concerns of one species?  Is this “right” only because we have the power to do it?  Most dismal is the question, will you and I have an effective say on this issue?  No, not with such immense wealth and power consolidated in the hands of so few.  So we vote with our purchases.  Support small and local in every way possible.  Forget the “savings” at the supermarkets.  One, overall you are not saving.  Two, it is only on the highest volume items that there is a savings over your local shops. 

 

Back to ploughing up grasslands.  What about the loss of diversity and loss of health that lies in the mix of nutrients?  Why plough up nutritious pasture to plant non-nutritious monoculture and then buy fertilizer and nutrients out of a bag to help animals survive?

Please tell me what I am missing here? 

A farmer’s real wealth is in the soil, not in the price of a bale of hay.