Scottish Blackface sheep grazing on Dartmoor in south-west England Peter Titmuss/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
It started innocuously, with some of livestock amid bucolic-looking Cumbrian countryside and an account of how many birds lived there. Within hours, a full-blown between farmer James Rebanks, who posted the photos, and environmentalist George Monbiot. Academics, ecologists and others piled in to cite scientific papers to argue whether grazing land with sheep and cattle is better for biodiversity or if it is best to hand grasslands back to nature.
The case exemplifies a fierce debate over the…
