Food safety and wildlife habitat
Food safety concerns (like the e. coli – spinach scare) are influencing the amount of natural habitat in some agricultural areas.
From the article ” That translates into ripping out trees and bushes to create sterile buffer zones, up to 100 metres wide, to keep deer and other animals out of “crop blocks.” Not only does this strategy do little to impede the wildlife – which in any case is highly unlikely to carry E. coli – but it also destroys habitat for insects that pollinate plants or eat pests. The buffers also promote erosion and allow pollutants into streams.“
I am all for food safety, but grassland buffers may reduce E. coli in runoff containing cattle feces, {which are being ‘scorched’ -Sam Riffell}.
How this plays out for wildlife will worth watching.
{Thanks to Ralph Maughan’s Wildlife News for putting me on to this}
