Probably, the majority of readers of this newsletter are people who would be described here in France as néo-ruraux (or aspiring néo-ruraux), i.e. people who are essentially urban in their upbringing, but who aspire to a more rural way of life, with a closer connection to nature.
The label can be slightly off-putting, because it implies that there is already an existing rural population, and that they have a greater legitimacy in the countryside than any new arrivals. Furthermore, it hints at the idea that these people have managed to preserve the knowledge and traditions of the past, and therefore know best how to manage the countryside; which is not the case, at least not in developed countries, but neither is it the case that anyone arriving fresh from the town is likely to have a better understanding of how to live in harmony with the world of nature.
The City-Based Economy
In the late 1700s, the industrial revolution caused European agriculture to switch from being focussed on self-sufficiency, to growing food for sale, in order to supply the growing urban population. That means that it is now almost two hundred and fifty years since much of Europe has been home to self-sufficient agriculture. Furthermore, the process of commercialisation has continued to accelerate over time, and in particular since the Second World War. People who have stayed on the land over the course of this time, have had to acquire new skills related to machine maintenance, the use of chemicals, form filling and financial management. It is a long time since people living in the European countryside have simply been subject to the laws of nature; for two hundred and fifty years, country life has been more and more about how to make money, and how to pay the bills, just as much as it has been in the city. Traditional country skills that involved working in harmony with nature, using hand tools and relying on resources that occur locally, are long forgotten. As the process of economic development has gathered pace, other parts of the world, such as North America, have taken the lead in developing even more industrial farming techniques, which in turn have then been taken back to Europe and to any area where more traditional agricultural methods have persisted, further alienating country life from its local roots.
The Urban Ideas for the Countryside
Meanwhile, people who have spent their lives in the city have become more and more detached from the natural world. Whereas, at one time, it was very common for people with factory jobs to also have a vegetable garden, and to grow a significant amount of food for their family, this has now become the exception rather than the rule. At the same time, however, people living in urban environments have had enough leisure time to notice that something is wrong in the world of nature; consequently new branches of environmental and ecological science have been developed, university departments created, books written, television programmes made, and campaigns launched, with the aim of detailing the catastrophic impact that human beings have had (are having) on the world of nature, especially since the start of the industrial revolution.
However, identifying a problem does not automatically mean that one has found a solution: most of this urban-based analysis has focussed on how plants and animals would live in the wild, in the complete absence of human beings; when it does touch upon how people could live in harmony with nature, it tends to veer into wishful thinking, and recommending ideas that have not been properly tried and tested.
When someone in the town decides that there is an inherent contradiction in the idea that it is possible for a small percentage of the population to produce food for everyone else, without doing material damage to the natural world, then the next logical step is for them to try to manage an area of land for themselves, and to work in cooperation with nature to meet some of their basic needs. They would thus become a neo-rural, but, if they were sensible, they would not imagine that they were bringing any superior knowledge of nature with them from the town – they would be starting from scratch. As would anyone born and bred in the countryside who wanted to escape the pressures of commercial farming and rediscover the common-sense practices of their ancestors.
Feedback
Your newsletter resonates with me. Everyone very much wants to categorise others outside themselves. Consequently, this creates misunderstanding in what each does. It is just incredibly important that we listen to each other, understand each other’s situation. At the end of the day, nobody has asked for it themselves how the world is now . That is why it is important to listen and live by the principles and ethics we have.
B. Vanden Driessche, Belgium
Thanks for this peace-of-mind-bringing analysis, solving à pseudo-paradox by proper thinking.
C. Schnitzer, Switzerland
Thank you for your writing. I am a long time smallholder in The Northern Rivers region of New South Wales. Delightful to receive your letters . So much more to learn.
T. Peirce, Australia