Wildlife in gardens, farms, ranches, and surrounding ecosystems provide a number of services essential to food production. Many industrial agricultural attempts to “improve” on these services by means of pesticides, herbicides, synthetic fertilizers, fossil fuel energy, and GMOs have proven unsustainable and often destructive of these natural processes. Biologically based food production on the other hand depends on these services, and the health of the garden, farm, or ranch ecosystem can be indicated by the abundance of several easily observed animals.
