Due to the publishing of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring in World 124 in 1962, bans on herbicides and pesticides were introduced nationwide. Unable to cope with the sudden overgrowth of pavement weeds, councils were inundated with mobility complaints. City farms took the problem into their own hands, herding their flocks through the streets to graze on overgrown grasses and weeds.
As city sheep populations grew, their wool became an abundant byproduct of weed management, freely shared amongst the community for use in knitting projects. Different cities and towns favour their individual sheep breeds which has led to distinctive local fashions.
What if …
pavement weeds and parkland grasses were mown by herds of city-dwelling sheep, providing an abundance of wool fibre byproduct?
Issue:
overgrazing in UK uplands
Inspiration:
Metro article “Pavements in Brighton ‘overrun by weeds’ after council bans herbicides” – consequential mobility issues. Inner-city farms. Sheep overrun villages during coronavirus.
This World was contributed by Sarah Kilkenny (located in London, UK) using a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence which allows others to share and adapt the work in any medium and for any purpose, providing that they credit the author and share their material using the same Creative Commons licence.
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