The Sad State of Europe's countryside

Yesterday I went on my first ever, and probably last hot-air balloon trip. It was to celebrate my girlfriend's birthday, and I must say that against all odds for Belgium, the weather was beautiful. The balloon operator said he was unlikely to get 10 days in a year with such good visibility, in fact.

So off we went, hovering over the fields of maize, potato, cabbage and grass, and spooking the cows that were grazing on the small plots of plain green grass that were scattered throughout Flanders small scale farming countryside.
A bit all over this landscape little villages sprawled into small built-up areas of recent houses where people sunbathed, had drinks or were already starting their grills for a late afternoon bbq.
The new neighbourhoods were starting to bite into the surrounding farming land, and there were factory chimneys out in the distance. But despite these things, there was still a nice feel to the region. Almost idyllic. But then I made the mistake of looking down.

We were flying over a field of maize, I remember. The stalks had grown to around one meter, perhaps. But that was not what pricked my idyllic bubble. It was the way that there was not one single shred of green in the land between all of those stalks of maize.
And this continued throughout the hour that we were floating about. In field after field, you could see the potato, maize, or cabbage plants growing, but nothing else. Absolutely nothing in between. Just brown yellow earth.
It did not take long for me to notice that nothing moved there either. Well, okay, a couple of pigeons would fly about on occasion, or a pair of crows. But nothing else. Not a rabbit, or a fox, or a bird in those fields. There were also no nests to be seen anywhere in the middle of the crops, nor much in terms of mole holes that I could spot. Just even, smooth brown yellow earth.

We always grew maize back home as I was growing up. My father was never much of an environmental man himself, and would often use biocides in quantities much higher than the recommended dosage, and twice as often as recommended. As many farmers did, and, I think, still do. And yet, even so, weeds would start showing up from the time maize got to half the size I saw yesterday. Moles wreacked havoc and birds would always take at least some grains here and there.

So, knowing how much my father used to love spraying things with chemicals, and how we still got some 'nature' fighting back, I have to wonder what in the blazes they are using on the fields I was seeing from the balloon yesterday to leave them completely deprived of any life but the crop.

No wonder the number and diversity of countryside birds in Europe has fallen 40% in the last two decades. 40%! That's on top of all that had happened before. 40%! And in places like Brazil, China and even America it is even worse.

And you know what is almost even more annoying? It is that it is all a matter of lazyness on the part of farmers.
In the middle of all those sterilised fields there was one that had weeds covering a good part of the soil between the stalks. I do not know why, perhaps it was an organic farm. Or perhaps the farmer was simply less spray-happy.
But I do know the following: the maize there was no smaller or looking less productive than anywhere else. If anything it was the contrary.

In fact, studies of farming yields throughout the last 200 years in the UK have shown that traditional farming methods produced as high a yield and in some cases a slightly higher yield as methods using biocides. Unlike what we get hammered into our heads all the time by agribusiness propaganda, the higher agricultural yields of contemporary farming have never been due to chemical pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, or even fertilizers. They have derive from more and better machines, better knowledge of seeds and natural processes, scale, and other positive developments.

The only real reason farmers have started using and have stuck by chemicals, in my view, and from my experience, is laziness. It's simply less work. Organic farming is more trouble. You might have to spend hours weeding, chasing bugs and critters, etc. With chemicals, instead, spray once and you're done working on pests for two weeks.
Ok, lazyness and marketing on the part of chemical companies. Some of those chemicals are not even all that effective anymore.

Now, back home, we have decided to go biocide free, and my father has stopped messing about in the farm. The place is slowly recovering, though it will probably take years before all of the ground is finally clean of the chemicals he dumped on it. Yet, I have already spotted over 10 species of small birds close to our house. Species I had never seen there before. And we even got a woodpecker showing up now.

On a recent visit to Heidelberg, where I was studying German for a few weeks (took the train to get there, in case you're wondering), on the hills across from the town, there are dozens of private orchards along the Philosopher's trail. I often saw people there pulling out by hand creepers and weeds during the weekend and evening, so I assume there is little in the sense of herbicides at least. Well, the whole area seems to be teeming with life, with the enormous racket of birds singing and chirping accompanying you permanently even as you walk into the residential areas at the edge of the hills.

Even where we were flying with the balloon, on the plots that were just growing grass for cattle, there seemed to be some nature still clinging on. I saw at least two hares and a fox as we flew past these.

So the difference between the sterilised farms that take up most of the countryside here, and I guess, almost everywhere, and a clean countryside is enormous.

That is why I have come back from this trip even more convinced of the need to stick to buying organic whenever possible.
Some people got into organic because it is healthier.
Some others, like me, because it also tastes good and it tend to provide a lot more types of things to buy, like types of vegetable you haven't seen in years but might still remember from your childhood, or your grandmother might remember from her childhood. Or vegetables that might be exotic but super healthy and tasty. And then you also tend to get a lot more varieties of the things you already used to buy, like apples or pears.

But more and more I feel that I should stick to organic (as well as local and/or fair trade whenever possible) for ethical reasons.
It is simply so much better for the environment. It's better for biodiversity, it's better for the quality of water resources, and it is even better for us, because then we can actually enjoy going for a walk in the countryside and being in the middle of nature, instead of being in a simulacrum of nature, which is what a lot of the countryside has become, not much better than if it had been made out of plastic.
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Anyhow, we came back from the balloon ride and went to visit my girlfriend's mother. The first thing I notice when I get there is the plastic bottle of RoundUp, (in)famous among herbicides, and a favourite of that most irresponsible of Agrimonsters: Monsanto.
It had been brought by my brother-in-law, to kill the handful of pitiful weeds growing through the gravel outside the house. He also plans to use it all around his new house, despite the fact that he is father to a young girl, barely able to walk, who is sure to play there for years to come.
Well, I tried informing them of how dangerous the stuff is. I mean, just look it up. Wikipedia alone is enough to make me want to stay well clear of it. But, of course, it's 'Oh, the place is overwhelmed with weeds', 'Oh, it will take forever to clean up by hand', 'Oh, this and that non-chemical method will only have the weeds grow again within days', 'But it says here in the pack it's gone within 2 weeks, anyhow, so why are you worried?'

Sometimes you just have to accept people do not want to listen. You have to avoid having yet another fight over something that will not change a single thing. Had more than enough lost battles over organic produce, over saving energy, over how buying stuff just because you can will only generate trash, not happiness. The list could go on and on.
So I let it go after a while. Maybe I'll try again some other day. When my chances they'll listen are better.
Maybe when they're tired? Hmm, probably won't work.
I wonder if I'd get a better chance if I hit them with a frying pan over the head?