Lebanon in a Picture

Mangetout. Goats will eat almost anything. They'll munch through thorns,... (Rashayya, Béqaa, Lebanon)

Mangetout. Goats will eat almost anything. They'll munch through thorns,... (Rashayya, Béqaa, Lebanon) Mangetout. Goats will eat almost anything. They'll munch through thorns, spines and branches to get at what they want and what they want, generally, is anything young and tender. New leaves, green branches, saplings. Were they acting on their own, this voracity might not matter but when the goaty propensity to eat anything young and green is combined with the human propensity to chop down everything old and green, the result is the permanent stripping of entire mountains. I remember reading once that after humans, goats bear the greatest responsibility for the deforestation of the Mediterranean. Those mountains weren't always bare but after we began clearing the trees, our goats and our love for the delicious milk and cheese we get from them, ensured that any saplings that grew to replace those trees, were eaten before they had a chance to mature. Man plus goat. It's a potent combination. One that Nature has little chance of resisting.
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