Modern farming practices are ruining the land. The great grass prairie of the central United States was destroyed by plowing and monoculture in the nineteenth century. Clearcutting and intentional wildfires are making the Amazon rainforests shrink at an alarming rate. What can be done?
There are no simple solutions. One lesson, that may shape intentions, comes from the ancient culture of the Mayas of Central America.
Dr. Anabel Ford, an archeologist, has spent the last fifty years studying the ancient and modern Maya culture. Her interest has been to study the distribution of rural villages outside of the Mayan urban areas and how their agricultural practices supported a large civilization. Her findings were that there were many, many villages and they all did their farming in the forests. No clearcutting. No plowing. Just planting food crops among the native vegetation. It was a farming method that worked for them by utilizing the synergy of the forest to stimulate and maintain life. In her Scientific American article, she stated, “… their practices offer solutions to contemporary environmental crises,”
An example of a farmer’s first steps in enlisting the forest as a partner in growing food for people comes from a friend in Minnesota. He decided to grow ginger as a cash crop. Rather than create a traditional garden, he planted commercial ginger plants in scattered locations in the forest around his dairy farm. He did not use wild ginger, which is native to Minnesota but also not safe to eat. Commercial ginger is more of a tropical plant. Anyhow, his experiment did not work out but he gave it the old college try. He went on to other cutting edge experiments in sustainable farming that have been successful. That first experiment with ginger, while not successful, encouraged him to persevere.
Forest gardening has become quite common. I found a number of web sites with directions for growing your own.
A side avenue of thought occurred to me. I had a friend who had a large strawberry patch. He had built a fence around it to keep out the rabbits. The rabbits were not defeated and so my friend spent his mornings and early evenings taking pot shots at the rabbits, who were happily eating the strawberries. My friend was operating from a position of lack. He did not feel he could share his strawberries with the rabbits.
When one plants the garden in a forest there are no fences to keep the rabbits away. One must operate from a position of abundance; There will be enough for the rabbits and I. This shift in attitude is as important as the science in moving our societies from positions of survival and lack to ones of sustainability and abundance.
Resources
- Tallgrass Prairie, Wikipedia.
- How deforestation is pushing the Amazon to a climate tipping point, Greenpeace, 2022.
- The Enduring Forest Gardens of the Ancient Maya, Anabel Ford, American Scientist, 2024.
- Maya Forest Gardens, ISBER/MesoAmerican Research Center, University of California, 2010.
- Lessons from the Maya Forest Garden, The Nature Conservatory, 2020.
- Plant of the Week: Wild Ginger (Asarum canadense L.), Larry Stritch, US Forest Service, US Department of Agriculture, 2024.
- Growing Ginger in the North, Michelle, Forks in the Dirt, 2023. Latin name: Zingiber Officinale roscoe.
- What’s a Forest Garden, Anyway? Here’s How to Create One in Your Backyard, National Association of State Foresters, 2024.
- Photo: A wild pecan tree in a meadow of natives grasses. Location: Texas Hill Country.
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