URBAN PASTORALISM

Fig. 1: afnewsagency. (2014) Animal farm with Lambs. Available at: https://pixabay.com/photos/ sheep-lambs-market-farm-animal-678196/ (Accessed: 10 April 2021).

Fig. 2: ILC Rangelands Initiative. (2018) Sheep in the northern mountains of Spain bearing up to winter snows. Available at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ilri/41050913035 (Accessed: 10 April 2021).

Modern agriculture has allowed us to dismiss the pastoral landscape. Still, the idea of the pastoral lives on, in folklore, tradition and identity. It has been romanticised through history. It has been the allure for urban audiences with no experience of the pre-industrial revolution rural lifestyle. The human condition in the urban no longer relies on the pastoral landscape and processes involved in it for survival or security. Yet the introduction of grazing livestock, particularly sheep is on the rise. Under what conditions are we re-introducing the grazing animal into our urban environments? Is urban pastoralism the way of recohabiting the landscape with the animal and connecting us to the natural process?

Sustainable pastoralism especially in the urban is a complex issue above the scope of this essay. Some benefits of Urban Pastoralism according to GreenSheep.fr have promoted biodiversity, attractiveness to visitors, promoting a trendy and innovative image of the city, economic – the cost is up to a quarter lower compared to traditional mowing, improved wellbeing of residents. (GreenSheep, n.d.) Though important to mention, the benefits of Urban Pastoralism and eco-grazing are not a part of the question. The most daring promise from Urban Pastoralism is the return of nature into the environment. This is particularly interesting in the case of cities, which have historically been a pastoral landscape.

Firstly, let us define pastoralism. Pastoralism is a “way of keeping animals such as cattle, sheep, etc. that involves moving them from place to place to find water and food” (Schoof & Luick, 2018) The movement from place to place, being the key phrase in the definition. The said movement to find food has connected pastoral societies, nomadic or transhumanistic to the survival landscape. The food search is what made the landscape survivalist in the first place.

For the purpose of this essay, a survival landscape is a landscape that is a key element in the process of survival and ensuring security for a society that inhabits it. In the specific example of pastoralism, such landscapes include pastures, high and low pastures, migration routes and transhumance routes.

Pastoral societies interacted directly with the landscape they inhabited and moved through. This interaction and action of the movement were key to socio-ecological services. Pastoral societies have created an environment that depended on them, and they depended on it, with the grazing animal a keystone in the affair. This production of socio-ecological services has not only provided the resources needed for the survival of pastoral societies but has created a nomadic culture deeply ingrained in the landscape and biocentric identities. The Landscape was enriched by animal’s manure and by the time the herd returned, it provided all necessary nutrients back. The key in the pastoral landscape has been the co-habitation of the animal and the human within the environment.

Probably the most famous example of the Sheep in an urban environment is Clinamen Collective Paris. Known as the Urban Shepherd of Paris, Julie-Lou Dubreuilh has been taking her sheep inside the border of Paris to graze.

Joulie says, “We go to the border of Paris twice a month, to graze in the course. Daily, the herd grazes an immense 400-hectare park in La Courneuve. And five days a month, they eat in the city on circuits of 9-15km, in an urban area north of Paris that extends from Aubervilliers to Garges-lès-Gonesse.” (Guardian 2019) In the summer of 2019, she got the authorisation to take shepherding activities inside Paris. She was allowed to take her sheep on a 144 km journey, lasting 12 days. The trip arrived at the Invalides, through Trocadero and the Eiffel Tower.

Duberuilh said in an interview with The Guardian: “Generally, people are happy and especially children because for most of them, it’s their first time in life to see real sheep. We occasionally pass by a group of snobbish people, who look down on us. However, I feel quite comfortable with my sheep in such fancy places – that is my little revenge against capitalism.” (Guardian 2019) Though maybe revenge against capitalism on a personal scale, the act is still constricted by the authorities. This makes me think the re-introduction of sheep into a city-dwellers landscape can be described as an act of ecological fear and consumer guilt, rather than a genuine goal of co-habitation with the grazing animal and the pastoral continuum. In this case, the sheep are physically taking up public space in the urban environment. The sheeps’ lack of agency in the action, further amplified by the inaccessible agency of their shepherds shows how constrained and strictly defined their presence is. The sheep does not fit into the urban environment plainly, because its agency over finding grazeland and occupying the landscape as a part of a natural grazing process is not allowed.

Raymond Williams in the book Country and The City describes how the pastoral has been used in direct opposition to the urban environment and transformed in the eyes of the indweller. “Yet ‘pastoral’, with its once precise meaning, was undergoing in the same period an extraordinary transformation. Its most serious element was a renewed intensity of attention to natural beauty, but this is now the nature of observation, of the scientist, of the tourist, rather than of the working countryman.” He continues, “The other main element was very different: pastoral became theatrical and romantic in the strict senses.” (Raymond 1975) Reflectively, the sheep calmly grazing under the Eiffel tower, admired by onlookers, are a romanticised view of the pastoral. It is what we wish, Urban Pastoralism could be, therefore that is all we allow it to be.

As seen in Paris, the socio-ecological benefits, once ensuring basic survival, now rely solely on grazing management. Any type of urban greenery management in an urban environment requires a detailed understanding of land use, by animals as well as humans. In an already established urban environment, such as London or Paris, land use is a total arrangement of activities, inputs and outputs on a specific land type. Allowing the sheep to follow natural patterns of grazing, as it did in nomadic pastoral societies, would inevitably disrupt the inner workings of an urban landscape.

Fig. 3: Eassa, Abdulmonam. (2019) Tourists flock around sheep in central Paris. Available at: https://www.abdulmonameassa.com/theurban-shepherd-of-paris (Accessed: 10 April 2021).

Fig. 4: Eassa, Abdulmonam. (2019) Sheep guided around Paris. Available at: https://www.abdulmonameassa.com/the-urban-shepherdof-paris (Accessed: 10 April 2021).

Fig. 5: Eassa, Abdulmonam. (2019) The sheep graze with Paris in the background. Available at: https://www.abdulmonameassa.com/theurban-shepherd-of-paris (Accessed: 10 April 2021).

The urban environment has always been designed to accommodate for structured, strict and efficient movement patterns, always beneficial to the human condition. Even planning of cities, which arose from a pastoral landscape did not consider the grazing patterns. Not only haven’t they taken into consideration grazing patterns and nomadic pastoralism, but they have also dismissed transhumance. Transhumance is the seasonal movement of livestock, between fixed summer and winter pastures. The word itself is from French and derives from the Latin words trans – across and humus – ground. (Arnold 2006) In the Pyrenees, there is proof of transhumance movement in the landscape since the late Mesolithic and the Early Neolithic periods. (Geddes 1983) The tradition has been continuing, but since the industrial revolution has been in steep decline.

An example following the disruption of transhumant routes by the urban environment and vice versa can be Madrid’s pastoral history and its annual festival Fiesta de la Trashumancia.

The migratory grazing routes found in Spain are known as The Cañadas Reales - Roads for Drovers. It used to be a network of paths over 80 000 miles long. Every year since 1994 the sheep farmers have paraded their animals through the city. Now seen as a tourist attraction, the procession began as a way to defend ancient rights to move livestock to pastures.

The route used to be an undeveloped countryside, a fraction of The Cañadas Reales. A way through the rural landscape to the south of Spain where winter grazing pastures are located. This route has been used since medieval times, with defined land use as a herding path. Until the 13th century, these routes have been protected from urbanisation and long-term occupation. Only in the 1960s they have been occupied and disconnected by infrastructure and urbanised areas. The newly developed areas failed to reflect the importance and presence of these routes in their system and design.

Currently, the path starts in Casa de Campo. The largest public park west of central Madrid. Once a royal estate with a hunting ground and farmland. (Madrid 2021) Then continues onto Puerta del Sol, the main square. And ends by the town hall.

The wool and sheep industry is strongly connected to the history of Madrid and the Spanish economy. Not only that, but migration and sheep raising has been a part of the countries folklore. The image of the pastoral and symbolism of herding has made its way into religion in the form of bishops, representing a shepherd to God’s people. It has been a significant theme in the history of arts. (Costello 2018)

Fig. 7: Pozo, Oscar Del for AFP. (2019) Sheep in front of Madrid City Hall on October 20, 2019. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/ world-europe-50115974 (Accessed: 10 April 2021). Fig. 8: Aguirre, Antxon. (1998) Climb to the mountain Aia (Gipuzkoa). Available at: https://atlasetnikerenglish.wordpress. com/2019/05/17/spring-summer-transhumance-and-transterminance/ (Accessed: 10 April 2021). Fig. 6: Own image. Transhumance routes in Spain.

Fig. 9: Pozo, Oscar Del for AFP. (2019) Flocks of sheep and goats are herded in the city center of Madrid on October 20, 2019. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-50115974 (Accessed: 10 April 2021). Fig. 10: Pozo, Oscar Del. (2019) Sheep in front of Madrid City Hall on Sunday. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-50115974 (Accessed: 10 April 2021). Lenka Rajmont, BALA Y2, University of Greenwich

Not only mentioned examples share the same set of elements. Another, more local example of exercising rights using sheep is the Annual Great Sheep Drive in London. “In medieval times, sheep farmers drove their sheep across London Bridge into the City of London to sell them at the market. Freemen of the City were excused the bridge toll that had to be paid by other people crossing the bridge, in recognition of their status as local traders.” (SheepDrive 2021) This materialises the sheep as a tool of physical occupation to prove status and power. It is my view that the lack of genuine connection of the human psyche, degrades the presence of the animal to a tool of ecotechnology. This statement is supported by Leo Marx’s Machine in the Garden, where he defines the links between progressive and pastoral in contemporary society. (Marx 2000)

To conclude, urban pastoralism as we know it now, doesn’t fulfil the promise of reconnection of humanity to the pastoral process. A peaceful and harmonious cohabitation of grazing livestock in the urban environment would require a large number of changes in the early stages of urban planning or as the urban fabric arises from the rural.

The presence of the grazing animal is always under the strict control of the authorities. There is a very specific intention for bringing the animals into the environment. Be its ecological services or a celebration of pastoralism. Firstly, the sheep serves as a symbol of status. Secondly, the sheep has become a representative tool, rather than a part of the natural process.

The sheep in the Anthropocene is perceived as a resource of economic value or its ecological services. If the sheep are not able to graze freely, the landscape cannot benefit from the process. The survival does not depend on the presence of the animal. The sheep becomes a token of ecology and green urban infrastructure. None of the Case studies has shown successful incorporation of the herds natural grazing behaviour. The sheep are highly controlled and their behaviour is moulded to human-thought grazing management systems, which only benefit the desires of the urban fabric and human condition. This sheep’s lack of agency over movement and behaviour is in direct conflict with the philosophy of cohabitation. The dichotomy of the rural pastoral and urban is to stay. Urban Pastoralism, as it is now, is a romanticised view of the pastoral, moulded to the eye of the city -dweller. It is a much more complex issue, reaching into ecopolitics and ethnobiology, worth more time and deeper research.

Fig. 11: Grover, Paul. (2017) TV cook Merry Berry drives sheep across London Bridge. Available at: https://www.woolmen. com/sheep-drive/ (Accessed: 10 April 2021).

Fig. 12: FarmingUK. (2015) More than 800 Freemen of the City of London, affiliated to one of the 110 City Livery Companies, will join forces next Sunday (27th September) to exercise their long-established right to drive sheep across London’s oldest river crossing. Available at: https://www.farminguk. com/news/sheep-will-be-flocking-to-london-bridge-to-re-enact-historic-freemen-s-trading-right_37145.html (Accessed: 10 April 2021).