Response to Arkangel
Re: Small Game Workshop
As I am sure you are aware, Earth First! is not a cohesive group but a
network of groups and individuals who take direct action to confront,
stop and eventually reverse the forces that are responsible for the
destruction of the Earth and it’s inhabitants.
Contained within this general desire, there are many different strands
of thought amongst those who take action under the banner of Earth
First! Some of these strands of thought might be consistent with
hunting animals for food (to re-balance some ecosystems, for example)
and others might be opposed to it.
The Earth First! Summer Gathering aims to give a flavour of all these
strands of thought through its workshops and its structure, including
discussions on wild living.
All food served at the Earth First! Summer Gathering is vegan and a
general philosophy of respect for all living things is central to Earth
First! But here we get into arguments about definitions and living
practice which we would be willing to argue personally but that the
collective cannot take a definitive position on because it
doesn’t necessarily agree with itself!
The idea for a Hunting Small Game workshop came out of a discussion
amongst anarcho-primitivist members of the Earth First! Gathering
Collective. Earth First! is not an animal rights network –
although many within it adhere to AR principles. It is a network of
people with a broad ecological perspective who are constantly reviewing
both their critique and practice of current and future worlds.
Our relationship to food is a huge part of our critique of society and
many people are reviewing the idea that veganism is an unequivocally
ethical choice. Critiquing industrial agriculture, studying
hunter-gatherer societies and envisioning what kind of society people
want (as opposed to reacting to the one we live in), means that a
reassessment might for some people include killing and eating animals.
Such a course of action would require a great deal of consideration
about what the impacts of removing those animals has for the
populations of those species and the local ecosystem(s), for the
environment as a whole.
Some species introduced into the UK are threatening other species with
local extinction and radically altering some ecosystems. It can be
argued that humanely removing these plants and animals from particular
locations (eg Rhodedendron bushes and Grey Squirrels from many
woodlands, or the Hedgehogs introduced into some Outer Hebrides
islands) is important for maintaining the integrity and viability of
some populations and ecosystems. In the case of invasive animals, the
possibility of positively impacting on the environment while obtaining
food without recourse to industrial agriculture, is at least an
interesting discussion.
No decisions have been made so far about which workshops will be
timetabled. And this discussion will be one of a hundred or so
workshops. We do not want this issue to dominate the gathering.
However, for the reasons given above, we feel it would be entirely
appropriate for people to have the opportunity to discuss the
ecological impact of hunting small game at an Earth First! Gathering.
I hope this answers some of your queries, and that you will encourage
people to attend the gathering.
Earth First! Summer Gathering Collective
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