The ocean sang, the conversation’s dimmed

I’m still immobile from my operation.

Watched Apocalypse Cow, George Monbiot’s recent documentary about the impact of livestock farming on the planet. Monbiot’s excellent at stripping away the falsehoods and misconceptions surrounding agriculture. At the start he presents a model in which he shows how livestock dominates Britain (something like 51% of Britain is occupied by livestock farming; crops are 20%; towns and cities are 5%).

Mobiot’s argument is that farming is causing incredible damage on the environment. He views sheep farming as causing terrible devastation. Rivers are polluted more by farming than any other industry. Only 14% of British rivers are in good ecological health, he tells us.

He goes on to investigate “cultured meat”, lab-grown meat created from stem cells. It still relies, however, on growing crops to feed to the meat. He visits a lab where electricity is used to split water molecules which feeds the bacteria that is used to create foods. This “electric protein” uses a fraction of the land used by farming (and can be the feedstock for the “cultured meat”). We will need fruit and veg, though. Monbiot visits a farm which does not use fertilisers at all and shows natural techniques to grow crops and replenish the soil. Working with nature rather than against it.

In the last part of the documentary Monbiot visits the Cairngorns to hunt deer. 750,000 deer populate the Scottish Highlands and reducing their numbers will enable the land to return to its “natural” tree-filled state. In a sequence I found unsettling, Monbiot shoots and then eats a deer! I’m not sure why he did this. To prove how invested he is in his belief in “rewilding”?

One of the most astonishing things that Monbiot shows is how quickly “rewilding” happens. He visits an area in Holland where “rewilding” has happened within a decade or two. Reclaiming land from farms is shown to not only repair the environment but also boosts local economies. He believes that “rewilding” projects can reverse environmental damage.