Farming Nature

I have self-sustainable interests and over time I've been learning about how to garden. I've learned that there are problems with the traditional means of agriculture. From a sustainable perspective, traditional agriculture does not work because it relies on breaking up the ground and reducing all vegetation exposing it to erosion; and planting large areas of a single species, mono-cropping which creates an imbalance of insect supply and opportunities for disease to spread rapidly.

Nature does not propagate using traditional agricultural methods. Rarely does nature break up the ground, only with the rooting of pigs or the sharp hooves of large beasts is the ground ever broken up, and never over large areas. Nature has diverse species living together. Nature takes advantage of every possible habitat, some growing tall, some growing small, some in the spring, some vining up another, some grow all year, others only seasonally. Even in prairies where there are large expanses of grass, it is not just one kind of grass. There are several different kinds of grasses as well as forbs which grow at different times and heights.

The diversity of plants supports a diversity of insects, many of which are specie specific. Many bugs, like the monarch butterfly, only grow on one kind of plant. Some bugs thrive on multiple plants, but usually prefer the plants of their ecosystem. Introduced plants from another ecosystem are usually not considered a food source. By having a diversity of plants and thus a diversity of insects, nature provides a constant food source for birds, and other animals.

If only one plant were gown in an area, the the potential insect food source for animals would be seasonal and unable to support potential predators for very long. Potential predators would need to be migratory and would only naturally show up when the population of insects was so large as to be destroying the plants they lived upon. The only effective way to control insects using mono-cropping techniques is to use pesticides which kill the beneficial insects as well has the harmful ones, and get into the water supply and food chain causing all kinds of health problems for people as well as animals.

Permaculture, an agricultural technique that mimics nature, is an improvement over traditional agriculture. It uses a multistoried perennial approach, that inter mixes plants based on their needs for light, water, nutrients, as well as being prone to certain kinds of insects. But it still depends largely on a limited selection of non-indigenous plants.

Nature produces copiously in each ecosystem. Many indigenous plants are edible, those which are not particularly tasty often have medicinal qualities. Others are good for making into fabrics, paper, or furnishings. There is not a plant in the world that is not good for something. It is only up to our imagination what a particular plant or animal is useful for.

The plants we eat are the ones we have historically found to be easiest to harvest, store, and ship. But there is no reason we need to limit our diet to those plants. We are smart enough to build machines that can lift us high into the trees. We know how to build tents that can funnel dropping seeds to a central collection place. We now have freezers that can preserve food instantly for long periods of time. We have machines that sort seeds, presses that can squeeze out the oil of any kind of seed, and vacuums that could suck up seeds that are not easily picked or that would be lost to the wind. We now have chemistry and machines that make use of every aspect of nature.

Since we can make use of all of nature, I see no reason to limit our use of nature to only a few plants and animals. In fact I see lots of reasons to use every part of nature. First of all it would be a waste not to do so. Secondly, the waste is a form of disrespect to our creator. But more importantly, nature needs us to do so. A National Geographic author writing about the area around Mt St. Helen said that nature on its own goes through boom and bust cycles. Nature needs someone with intelligence to manage those cycles so that the cyclical bust does not lead to extinction. Nature needs someone(s) who will manage it so that no one part thrives at the expense of another. Ecosystems have a natural balance which go through extreme cycles. If we cull the excesses of nature, keeping it from booming, then we will also keep it from going bust. And we are smart enough and capable enough and adaptable enough to live on whatever nature provides. This is why God made us. This is the reality we need to live into.