Husbandry

At first glance husbandry looks like a quaint old-fashioned notion more relevant to the backwoods. Not so. It has been the foundation of managing the ecology just as long as man has been on earth. But it has never been more relevant than it is today.

Good husbandry requires that we look after the environment and it may have been somewhat neglected in recent years when man has had some responsibility for pollution and our resultant climate change.

We need to return to the principles of good husbandry and take full responsibility for our actions. Such principles as conservation. If preservation doesn't do it for you then how about self-preservation. If we fail to conserve our resources our quality of life will suffer perhaps to the point of extinction.

Waste management is a form of husbandry just as much in farming and agriculture on a macro scale as it is in gardening on the micro scale. To plant up in such a way as to be overly demanding on chemicals or water is poor husbandry.

Originally husbandry was about frugality and thrift; a make-do and mend culture that we have largely abandoned in favour of increased efficiency developed through science. But with increased efficiency comes a responsibility to manage our ecological economy far better than of late.