The farmer as conservationist: Aldo Leopold on agriculture

Excerpt

IN February 1939, as part of the Wisconsin Farm and Home Week observance at the University of Wisconsin, Aldo Leopold presented an address entitled “The Farmer as a Conservationist” (5). Leopold began his remarks with these words:

“When the land does well for its owner, and the owner does well by his land—when both end up better by reason of their partnership—then we have conservation. When one or the other grows poorer, either in substance, or in character, or in responsiveness to sun, wind, and rain, then we have something else, and it is something we do not like.

“Let's admit at the outset that harmony between man and land, like harmony between neighbors, is an ideal—and one we shall never attain. Only glib and ignorant men, unable to feel the mighty currents of history, unable to see the incredible complexity of agriculture itself, can promise any early attainment of that ideal. But any man who respects himself and his land can try to” (5).

This quotation is vintage Leopold, displaying his characteristic mix of idealism and practicality, expressing his dual concern for the fate of man and land. It …