Samuel
is a crop field substantively different to a manicured lawn? - monoculture - drenched in pesticides - planted in place of whatever was there previously
Samuel@samuel.fm· 21 Jul 2023
flying over Finland made me realise how ecologically dead Britain is. Farmland is not nature
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sl0mad
the argument that 'at least it produces food' is kinda a cop-out imo. Yes I guess they are technically substantively different, but their effect on the ecosystem of the area are equivalent so if you care about nature they're really not different.
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Samuel
@samuel.fm
Agreed. Should have phrased it “is it substantively more natural…”
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sl0mad
Ok cool, in which case I'd say almost definitely no. However, at least in the UK there are vague efforts (that currently fall massively short) to preserve and improve hedgerows between fields, that really help protect the wildlife, effectively working as 'nature corridors'.
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sl0mad
That doesn't really help with the massive application of pesticides, and there are still *massive* issues with ground-nesting birds in particular though. Not every field is build the same, and I suppose crop fields are harvested less often (i.e., once per year) but yeah it's not great
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