Aldo Leopold might call it the new agrarianism

One hundred years ago, a great American conservationist began a job in the Southwest as a ranger with the U.S. Forest Service. Over the course of an influential career, Aldo Leopold advocated a variety of conservation methods, including wilderness protection, sustainable agriculture, wildlife research, ecological restoration, environmental education, land health, erosion control and watershed management. But perhaps most important, he advocated a land ethic. Each of these concepts continues to resonate, perhaps more than ever as the challenges of the 21st century grow more complicated and pressing. But it was Leopold's emphasis on conserving whole systems — soil, water, plants, animals and people — that is crucial today. The health of the entire system, he argued, is dependent on its indivisibility. The force that knits it all together is the land ethic, a moral obligation we willingly assume to protect the soil, water, plants, animals and people living together as one community. After Leopold's death in 1948, however, the idea of a whole system seemed to break into fragments, beset by a rising tide of industrialization and materialism. Fortunately, a scattered but determined effort is now under way to knit the whole back together, and it's beginning where it matters most –– on the ground. Leopold's call for a land ethic is the root of the “new agrarianism,” a diverse suite of ideas and practices based on the bedrock belief that genuine health and wealth depends on the land's fertility. In Latin, agrarius means “pertaining to land.” This resurgent movement includes a dynamic intermixing of ranchers, farmers, conservationists, scientists and others who aim to create an economy that works in harmony with nature...read more