A Sand County Almanac: With essays on conservation from Round River

This weeks reading was an excerpt from A Sand County Almanac, it is titled, The Land Ethic. In the passage an ethic is described as "ecologically a limitation on freedom of action in the struggle for existence. Philosophically, is a differentiation of social from anti-social conduct (Leopold 58)." This relates back to the environment in different ways. An ethic can be considered a kind of instinct in the making, so animal instincts are ethics how the animals continue to survive in the wild, by hunting and breeding. The human lifestyle can be seen as a limitation on freedom as we are constantly destroying wildlife for various reasons such as, homes, buildings, etc. Hundreds of species are becoming endangered and at this rate heading towards becoming extinct such as the Florida Panther.

"Conversation is a state of harmony between men and land (62)." The excerpt seems to relate this quote with how the farming industry was farming in a way that was not necessarily the best way for harmony between men and land. A change in a way of how somehow farms can be seen as a major drastic change. If a farming technique that has been done for years and worked that would be unfair for a farmer to have risk his livelihood, for a more ecological friendly way to preserve land. So that is why farmers were not necessarily agreeing with some of the laws being passed. They want to continue with remedial practices that were profitable but not in best interest for communities.

The passage ends with the author saying "our educational and economic system is headed away from rather than toward an intense consciousness of land (75)." I do believe that the so called lack of consciousness can be traced back to the educational and economic system, as the environment may not be a major focus or profit maker.  With the general mind state like this conservation is something that will be hard to reach perfectly because of  the lack of understanding land and the economic use of land.