Editorial Introduction to Volume II 11approach to land use is dysfunctional for a variety of reasons. As he says, ‘the envi-
ronment is constantly being constructed by the organisms (including humans)
who live in it’. He goes on to describe the importance of wildness in productive
farming, in terms of choice of livestock breeds, habitats for pollinators and crop
rotations to eliminate herbicides. In the second part of the article, Dan Imhoff sets
out the case for farming with the wild, drawing on a wide range of examples across
North America. Industrialized agriculture tends to farm against the wild, and is
characterized by huge monoculture fields and massive contained livestock opera-
tions. The rethinking needed to farm with the wild is already now beginning to
happen – the wild farm pioneers are building alliances and developing new ways
to reshape farming and food systems.
References
Uphoff, N et al (eds). 2006. Biological Approaches to Sustainable Soil Systems. Taylor and Francis, Boca
Raton, FL
Worster, D. 1994. The Wealth of Nature: Environmental History and the Ecological Imagination. Oxford
University Press, New York