Natur Cymru
At this time of year my diary entries often involve
insects: the first ringlets, freshly minted in long grass;
the fall of painted ladies sunning themselves on the terrace; or
the beautiful demoiselle sitting on a sprig of hawthorn inches
away, and then flitting off, circling and landing again on a
bramble leaf in the sun. They remind me of those moments of pure
pleasure, when I am startled out of myself by the vitality and
beauty of the natural world, and the noise of human affairs is
briefly stilled.
The desire for contact with the natural world is a gift, part
learnt and part inherited, and for me, its absence would mean
living in monochrome. Is it being passed on, in this age of
information overload, or is a whole generation losing touch with
nature? Stephen Bristow’s thoughtful look at the passing of real
environmental education, once learnt by building dens and climbing
trees in pursuit of birds’ eggs, gives cause for concern.
Much of this issue is taken up with the connections between
food, farming and the environment. When the price at the checkout
is low, the environmental cost is likely to be high. On the other
hand, buying local organic food from environmentally committed
producers should pay an environmental dividend. In this issue,
Glenda Thomas describes how consumer choice is driving change down
on the farm; and Richard Pitts reports on local food initiatives in
Powys.
Two years ago, the foot and mouth crisis looked set to change
farming forever. Some upland areas had a respite from the high
levels of sheep which subsidies encourage, and there was much talk
of a new vision for farming, leading to the publication of
Farming for the Future. The promise is yet to be
fulfilled, and our hills are alive with the sound of bleating.
Those scare stories about the hills being abandoned to scrub and
waste now look like the special pleading of vested interests
looking for payouts.
But increasingly, farmers themselves are taking the initiative
and changing the way they farm; as the heartening accounts of the
activities of a group of Montgomery farmers show, there is a spirit
of genuine concern abroad, where it matters most, to make farming,
and rural communities, more sustainable.
James Robertson