On one side, the Western one, New Zealand is rainforest. On the other, it's rolling hills. I almost believed I was in the UK, possibly southern Scotland or northern England, as we drove towards Wedderburn across impossibly extended farmland, like a stretched version of what you see in the sheep farming areas of Britain.
Then Sophie and Trudy drove me to the beach near Auckland where The Piano was shot. Totally different scene. Strange lifeforms on the beach and strange plants, ferns and palms, not unlike rural Taiwan. Black sand.
It struck me forcefully that agriculture has an aesthetic that is somewhat hostile to contemporary ecological concerns. The farmer we hung out with for instance, was one of the principal resistors of wind farms—why? Because the turbines would spoil the horizon line.
I'm so excited to see your photos from New Zealand-- I've heard farmers around those parts are fond of shooting the very dangerous snakes that inhabit that area. a
ReplyDeleteThe rolling hills of NZ are an industrial landscape, of course: the biodiversity of native bush has been removed and replaced with an ultra-simplified ecology centring on grass and cows or sheep. The deforestation process was begun by Maori clearing land for agriculture, and continued apace by European settlers. The industrial waste runoff (mostly cow excrement and fertilisers) entering the streams unfiltered has a highly destructive effect on the health of those waterways. A major challenge in addressing ecological problems like this is the presumption that grass+animals=nature, and the consequent blindness to the industrial nature of agriculture.
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