Dick de Vos: ‘Naturally, the canon isn’t filled entirely with farm animals and agricultural crops – farmyard birds, arable weeds and game are in there too.’ PHOTO: KNNV UITGEVERIJ
From nematodes, northern lapwings and European moles to tulips and marsh samphire. Nature guide and writer Dick de Vos hopes his canon will bring farmland nature to life and foster understanding among nature activists and angry farmers alike.
‘Once, agriculture and nature were closely intertwined, but little of that remains. All the more reason, as a consumer, to buy organic produce and give farmers a nudge towards more nature-inclusive production. In writing this canon, I was balancing between two abysses: between radical activists and angry farmers. It may be naïve, but I do hope to build bridges in this polarised landscape’, says nature guide and writer Dick de Vos (1958). On 18 June he presented the ‘first copy’ of his Canon of Dutch Farmland Nature to Sjoukje Heimovaara, biologist and chair of the executive board of Wageningen University, who herself grew up with Heuckels’ Flora and also believes that ‘we must close the gap between agriculture and nature’.
Defining the face of the landscape
For De Vos, farmland nature is a natural follow-up to his successful Canon of Dutch Nature, which appeared in autumn 2023 (see: Bionieuws 17, 2023). ‘That one also features just fifty species, and while putting it together I kept encountering plants and animals that are defining features of many Dutch landscapes, yet which purists refuse to count as nature. I don’t belong to that camp: for me, all living things are part of nature. If you ask a city dweller which bird is most common in the Netherlands, they might say the sparrow, whereas someone from the countryside might come up with the goose. Even if you add up all goose species, you don’t get beyond four million individuals. That pales entirely in comparison with the chicken: at any given moment, 100 million of them are living in the Netherlands. Twice as many as all wild birds combined – breeding birds and winter visitors added together. Not all those chickens go outdoors, and they originally came from somewhere else entirely, but that is precisely why the chicken’s story belongs in this canon. And the same goes for cattle, sheep and goats’, says De Vos.
A window
‘Sheep are already somewhat more self-evident to nature lovers. After all, we can barely imagine a heathland landscape without flocks of sheep. But sheep, too, originally come from mountainous regions. Like goats, their instinct when confronted with their number-one mortal enemy – the grey wolf – is to flee uphill. Without fencing, they stand no chance in our flat little country, and the same applies to the mouflon on the Veluwe’, says De Vos. ‘Naturally, the canon isn’t filled entirely with farm animals and agricultural crops – farmyard birds, arable weeds and traditional game are in there too. Every species tells a story about some aspect of farm life and the countryside: about soil life, water quality, food production, health, salinisation or insect decline. For me, every species is a window onto a story about nature in the countryside and about the present and past of our cultural landscapes. A story about the goat is incomplete without Q fever, and when you talk about grass, you shouldn’t only talk about herb-rich grassland but also about “grassphalt” – the monoculture of perennial ryegrass on which insects and birds quite literally have nothing to look for. There are many layers to this book, and even the footnotes sometimes form complete stories in their own right.’
‘Every species tells a story about some aspect of farm life and the countryside’
‘Common ragwort is a beautifully flowering weed and pioneer plant in road verges. As a nectar source it is enormously important for insects, but toxic to horses and cattle if it ends up in their hay. You can fight it tooth and nail, but if you leave the ground undisturbed the number of plants decreases of its own accord’, says De Vos. He also gives nuanced attention in his canon to the dozens of species of nematodes, which often live unnoticed in their billions in a single spadeful of soil: as the cause of potato cyst disease and as biological controllers of slugs. ‘You also need to have an eye for species you don’t see very often’, De Vos believes. ‘The weatherfish is now very rare in farm ditches, but before the land consolidation schemes it was a permanent resident of flood-prone areas along streams and rivers. They are very good at detecting small changes in air pressure, and in the past farmers would sometimes keep one in an aquarium or a preserving jar. When bad weather and rain are on the way, the weatherfish swims restlessly up and down like a living barometer.
Packaging
‘I myself have a great fondness for details and curiosities like these. They are ideal elements for keeping readers engaged with the stories you want to tell. I trained in literary studies: that is where I learned to package my message well. I worked in advertising, but the death of my young son led me to discover and appreciate nature. Nature offers comfort and inspiration. For me, that was reason enough to leave marketing: I now work partly as a nature guide and partly as a writer. I always advise everyone to go out and look at nature for themselves – not through rose-tinted spectacles, but also with an eye for the facts and their causes. You will then find that, despite everything, there is still a great deal to enjoy in the countryside.’
CANON OF DUTCH FARMLAND NATURE – Dick de Vos
Hardcover, 232 pages, €34.95