Animal contribution to diverse ecology

Steve A. Henness (shenness@juno.com)
Thu, 21 Nov 1996 02:10:29 EST

Jeff Goebel makes a good point about the animal contribution to a diverse
and thriving ecology, as true on the farm as it is in the national park.

The same point was brought out by Trauger Groh (Temple-Wilton Community
Farm, NH) at a biodynamic conference I attended in Minneapolis earlier
this month. He cited "the greatest sin of agriculture in this century"
as being the separation of animals from ourselves and from each other.
Why is it that domesticated animals have strangely been disappearing from
the farm over the years?

It seems we haven't made the connection between those hundreds of
thousands of "free-ranging" elk, bison, deer and antelope, with their
feeding, fertilizing and hoof work, and the once rich fertility of the
region we call the Great Basin.

--Steve Henness
shenness@juno.com