"We have to stop treating soil like dirt!"

Soil is the Basis of Life

 

 

Thomas L. Friedman, in The New York Times, August 11, 2013, tells us how while filming an environmental documentary in Salinas, Kansas, he muses on the political consequences of climate and environmental stress in the Middle East.

 

 

Trying to Win Territory,

While Losing the Life of the Land

 

 

Arab environmentalists and Arab politicians view territory differently.  Environmentalists focus on health of the "commons"-- shared air, soil, forests, and water.

 

What good is political domination by any one group--Shite or Sunni, Christian or Muslim, secular or Islamist--if "they've 'won' a country with eroding soil, degrading forests, scarce water, shrinking jobs"--in other words a deteriorating commons?

 

 

Monoculture--Either Cultural or Agricultural is Bad!

 

 

Friedman, then segues to the work of Wes Jackson, MacArthur award winner, of Salina, and his environmental philosophy.  Jackson wants to see the monoculture of the prairie returned to its original diversity.  Jackson wants to rescue the single-species, annual monoculture farming, that exhausts the soil, the source of all prairie life.  He says, "We have to stop treating soil like dirt."

 

Annual monocultures are especially susceptible to disease.  They require more fossil fuel energy--plows, fertilizer, pesticides.  Instead, he advocates  growing a mixture of perennial grains that will naturally provide nutrients and pesticides.

 

The Folly of Muslim Nostalgia

 

 

Instead of fostering commons--even agriculturally--in the Middle East, Al Qaeda wants to restore the strength of Islam by ridding Arab lands of all foreign influences.  Yet, the Golden Age of the Arab/Muslim world was in the 8th and 13th centuries when it had  a vibrant polyculture, when it was a thriving intellectual center for science, philosophy, medicine, and education.

 

Monocultures Don't Work!

 

 

Whether they exist culturally or in agriculture, monocultures drain life forces.  Sooner or later, we all pay the price, whether its a stagnant culture or industrial farming based on monoculture that debilitates rather than nourishes health.

 

Vive Diversity!

 

 

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