Lost Connections

I don't hunt. But I do respect those that do, and see the act of hunting as an icon of how powerful our connections to the land used to be. Because of that I am a West Virginia Hunting Safety Instructor. What I can't stand are slob hunters, who give all hunters a bad name and who are red meat (excuse the pun) to every animal rights person out there.

So as I read the first few paragraphs of this essay from the February Mountain Gazette, I stated thinking, "here we go" another anti hunting piece. It was far from that. Check it out.

We have lost so much connection to the natural world that it’s almost silly to even pen those words. Because industrial agriculture has killed the family farm, just in my lifetime, 100 generation’s worth of food-growing knowledge has evaporated. Globalization has all but killed our domestic timber industry/knowledge. Few folks now know how to weave or mill or make pottery from dirt or metal from ore. And, now, with the demise of hunting we are witnessing the death knell of yet another activity that connects us to our self-sufficient past.