Is Farming Compatible with Sustainability?

The truth about farms is that they were perhaps the beginning of environmental degradation (by our species) as we pursued the security that they provided through increased food production. The preference of one type of species (plant or animal) over another, meant that "less desirable" species were put in jeopardy. Forests were cleared and predators were eliminated as crops and livestock provided a previously unknown security. With that security came population growth and the need for more "security".

And so one might think that the tenet of the need for everything to flourish is contrary to what we know about farming. That's why I loved the book "One Straw Revolution" by Masanobu Fukuoka. A guide to natural farming, this book shared the story of a farmer who was able to grow a tremendous amount of food in cooperation with the land. In the book "Good News for a Change" David Suzuki and Holly Dressler have written a chapter entitled "How Coyote Grows Grass" and suddenly we can see this predator/scavenger in a new light.

I will review these books more at a later date, but for now the point that I'm trying to make is that the reason why the human species has flourished at the expense of others is in our inability to recognize the full power/potential of the relationships in which we are embedded. When we evaluate another based on how they will benefit us yet insist that this "influence" follow a direct path, we lose so much of what the world has to offer us indirectly and in the process limit what we are able to see.

What does it mean to be able to see someone or something in their full potential? Books like Mitch Albom's "The Five People You Meet In Heaven" try to get to the heart of that question. The book explores how the person you least expect can have the most profound impact on your life. It can be a powerful yet perhaps debilitating exercise. I can imagine how a person might become paralyzed with a worry of what chain of events might be set off by the most innocuous action. I remember wondering once in a poem whether Jesus Christ would have ever spoken to the masses had he known how many would eventually die in his name. Are you starting to see how this could become a circular argument? In the end, we have to decide what it is that we believe and then act on it. Some call this a leap of faith. I like taking leaps but not before I engage in extensive conversations. Maybe that's where we need to go next.