Excellent summary of recent agriculture. Do all these 'ponics' where the plants are grown as a monoculture with no natural ability to call in predators for pests need lots of pesticides and fungicides? Also I read infections from the water can spread quickly throughout the growing system as a whole, affecting all plants. The plants cant bring in phytochemicals to protect themselves as they are disassociated from their environment. Basically the plants are slaves to the humans system, unable to use their own systems. Very far away from Kimmerer's vision of reciprocity.
Yes, reading about these techniques reminds me of the failed biosphere experiments. It’s hard to replicate the natural world.
I did watch one video of some farmers experimenting with hydroponic strawberries. They had to shake the racks to pollinate the plants. She said, “without wind or bees I’m the one who needs to get things moving.” Also not very Kimmerer!
Humans have been tweaking nature to bend it toward higher crop yields for as long as we’ve been around. This stage in that evolution echoes the latest technology…in retrospect, years down the line, this blending of nature and technology may appear as forced as Frankenstein! But there are bound to be some breakthroughs as well as Kimmerer-style awareness of more natural and fruitful ways to work with nature and not reinvent it –true reciprocity. It probably won’t be either or, but yes and. That’s my hope.
Excellent summary of recent agriculture. Do all these 'ponics' where the plants are grown as a monoculture with no natural ability to call in predators for pests need lots of pesticides and fungicides? Also I read infections from the water can spread quickly throughout the growing system as a whole, affecting all plants. The plants cant bring in phytochemicals to protect themselves as they are disassociated from their environment. Basically the plants are slaves to the humans system, unable to use their own systems. Very far away from Kimmerer's vision of reciprocity.
Thanks, Carol!
Yes, reading about these techniques reminds me of the failed biosphere experiments. It’s hard to replicate the natural world.
I did watch one video of some farmers experimenting with hydroponic strawberries. They had to shake the racks to pollinate the plants. She said, “without wind or bees I’m the one who needs to get things moving.” Also not very Kimmerer!
Humans have been tweaking nature to bend it toward higher crop yields for as long as we’ve been around. This stage in that evolution echoes the latest technology…in retrospect, years down the line, this blending of nature and technology may appear as forced as Frankenstein! But there are bound to be some breakthroughs as well as Kimmerer-style awareness of more natural and fruitful ways to work with nature and not reinvent it –true reciprocity. It probably won’t be either or, but yes and. That’s my hope.