Stephen Harrod Buhner on the covid-19

Stephen Harrod Buhner on why we do not need alternative theories about the creation of the current virus and why we do need to change the way we occupy the planet.

"I have been teaching about microbial organisms for 30 years, writing about them for 20, and going really complex tor ten. The belief that these are engineered bioweapons comes from a number of psychological roots; I understand them and why they get activated. It IS true that the powerful keep most of us out of the loop, initiate actions that affect all of us negatively from time to time (While denying responsibility), and don't really care all that much for the common people. What else is new? This has always been true.

That plays a part in the belief that organisms are being bio-engineered but i think the stronger influence is simply our unwarranted belief that life is supposed to be safe (it isn't) and the natural world is some sort of Disney or Parkland background to our lives (it isn't).

The truth is that microbial organisms are tightly interwoven into the ecological fabric of this planet and on this planet there is no escape from global ecology. Very few people understand what the ecological underpinnings of life are or how far astray the human species has gone from any kind of sustainable habitation of this planet. This virus, and a great many other things, are trying to explain our error to us. They will get more insistent as time goes on.

Our technology (which comes out the discoveries of a science that believes that dissection of the world is a legitimate approach) and our increasing population (which has come from a medical system that take credit for the good things it does and ignores the ecological ramifications of its actions) has put unsustainable pressure on the ecological systems of the planet.

Under that pressure the ecological systems of the planet are beginning to fail. One of the effects of that is the emergence into the human population of pandemic diseases. I and others who are knowledgeable in this area have been warning about this for thirty years. We are not immune from the ecological impacts of our species' actions. We are ecological beings on an ecological planet and our belief in American exemptionalism is unfounded.

Microbes are some 4 billion years old, despite what most of us have been taught, and what most doctors and some scientists still believe, they are highly intelligent, are sophisticated tool users and innovators, possess language, culture, and are a great deal more sophisticated at what they are doing than we are and for sure our medical systems (which are for the most part based on inaccurate assumptions about the nature of disease and microbial pathogens and have little to no understanding of ecology).

In the 1950s, we started a pharmaceutical war with intelligent life forms far older than our own and who have survived challenges far greater than our current ecological mess. These organisms are arising from their ecological background and entering our species simply because there are too many of us and we have disturbed the ecological balance of the planet. To them we are no different than a deer or a bird. We are in fact prey; we always have been. it is just that we have come to believe we are not and by virtue of our "intelligence" should not be.

The great teaching of our time, despite the pain we are experiencing now (each of us will, as i have, lose people we love), is that the way we are going about things must change. It is no longer possible to continue as we have been. Each ecological response after this one is almost certainly going to be more extreme than the last if we continue this way.

In a sense, i guess you could say that this virus is bio-engineered BUT it has been bio-engineered by the ecological fabric of the planet, not people. The lesson here is that there are limits to our behavior that cannot be exceeded without consequences. It is a hard lesson but one we desperately need to learn. Our children deserve the effort it will take for us to learn this, as do their children, as do all our kindred life forms on this planet . . . and their children.

In the spirit of the plants,

Stephen Harrod Buhner"

Growing Food Like a Prairie - The Land Institutue

Millions of dollars have been spent in researching new and better ways to feed the hoarding masses and yet the best solutions may be what nature provides in her mature ecosystems whether it be a grass-filled prairie, the lushness of a tropical rain forest or a sun washed desert. The idea is that the agriculture of an area would imitate these ecosystems that thrived before settlement.

In that light The Land Institute in Kansas has spent the last 25 years studying how a perennial (ever renewing itself) polyculture (more than one crop grown together) might be the answer to feeding our ever expanding population without creating more problems. Wes Jackson, the leading force and inspiration behind the Land Institute believes that a natural prairie system could be a veritable grain factory complete with built-in pest controls and fertilizers. Jackson, his staff and a handful of volunteers are on a quest to reconnect how we grow our food with the natural processes of life. They acknowledge that our agricultural system needs a total overhaul. We have replaced natural systems with ones that are totally alien and have waged war on nature itself.

In a wild system, plants live in community, build topsoil, fight their own pest battles, and manufacture fertilizer. It is the biodiversity in a natural ecosystem that accounts for an endless array of functions that provide stability and growth to that system. There are the plants that fix nitrogen, the deep-rooted ones that burrow for water, the shallow-rooted ones that soak up the gentle rains, the fast growing ones that provide weed smothering shade early in the spring, the ones that repel pests and the ones that  supply food and homes for the good bugs. Even more remarkable is that 70 percent of the living weight of this system lies underground in natures own Internet and plumbing network. Roots and runners form a thick weave that captures moisture and nutrients from the depths. In every teaspoon of soil are thousands of species of bacteria and bugs that process fallen leaves and dead roots into a nutrient rich humus.

     When we ripped out our natural systems, tilled the soil, and planted monoculture crops doused in chemicals, we destroyed much of our natural inheritance for healthy food production. Instead of taking our lessons from the perfect teacher, which was the very systems we replaced, we arrogantly thought we could do better. The results are severely depleted topsoil, super-bugs that have become resistant to our most potent and toxic brews, increased cancer rates, poisoned water tables, and flounder genes in tomatoes.

      Jackson, a fourth generation farmer and somewhat of a maverick, bucks the traditional monoculture farming practices passed down through generations. As a youngster the hardiness of the natural prairie intrigued him. There was a rightness to it all. Studying for his Ph.D. in genetics at North Carolina State his advisor once declared that wilderness was the standard by which we must judge our agricultural practices. That statement set in motion a life long yearning to create a new system of agriculture that would use nature as its model. After a stint at the University of California at Sacramento creating their Environmental Studies program, Jackson moved his family to Kansas and created The Land Institute. Formed in 1976, it was originally a school for sustainable living practices.  Today the Land Institute is on a mission to design a domestic agricultural system that functions like a prairie. To that end many years went into just observing a natural prairie at work and cataloguing the seemingly infinite variety of plants growing at any one time.

     The first principle that struck the researchers is that ninety-nine point nine percent of the plants are perennials. Covering the ground throughout the year, they act as big sponges, holding the soil against wind and softening the force of raindrops. Perennials as it turns out are also self-fertilizing and self-weeding. Every year organic matter is added to the soil due to the death and decay of thirty percent of their roots. In the spring before weeds have a chance to emerge from their seeds, the remaining perennials burst forth with such abundance the weeds never have a chance.

     The second principle that stuck out is the amazing diversity of plant life. There could be over two hundred different species on any given acre of land. There is not just one kind of warm season grass, but perhaps forty different kinds. There might be twenty different varieties of nitrogen-fixing legumes. Nature banks on this type of diversity in order for its systems to have enough ammunition to ward off pests, drought and other anomalies. Pests often prefer one particular host plant species. With a large variety of species in one field, pests have a harder time zeroing in on their food. Some plants survive a dry season while other die out. The species composition remains the same, but different species flourish at different times.

     The third principle of a natural prairie is the ever-present four plant types: legumes, cool and warm season grasses, and composites such as golden rod and asters. Even though the species may vary, there is always a variety of all four. Each type provides an important function to serve the whole.

     The job of the Land Institute was to find perennial grains that could be produced in a natural prairie system with high enough yields to be taken seriously as food sources. Given additional strict criteria such as hardiness, good taste and ease of threshing, they ordered nearly five thousand different types of seed from various resources and planted them in nearby fields. Those that lasted the winters and showed promise became part of their breeding program.

     That research narrowed the candidates down to four hardy perennials that fit the bill. The first was eastern gamagrass (Tripscum dactyloides), a relative of corn. Gamagrass is a warm season grass that can be ground into cornmeal and baked into bread. Next came the Illinois bundleflower (Desmanthus illionoensis), a tall-growing legume that produces a rattle of seed-pods; and mammoth wildrye (Leymus racemosus), a cousin of wheat that is drought tolerant. The Maximilian sunflower (lianthus maximiliannii), completed the quartet and provides oil-rich seeds with a variety of uses. They also came up with two annuals they hybridized with perennials to round out the breeding program, milo grain sorgum and Johnsongrass.

     They have since cross-pollinated each species to come up with the best of the best  and increase the positive traits. The next step was to grow them in a polyculture.. They started to grow their prize seeds in various combinations, but soon realized the variations were endless. How does one quickly recreate a system that originally took thousands of years to develop? They found help in James Drake and Stuart Pimm of the University of Tennessee.  Using both computer models and aquatic organisms, Drake and Pimm experimented with various combinations of species, letting them work out who will survive and in what ratio. With this information, the Land Institute created sixteen plots to try various mixes. What they are discovering is that for the first and second year the fields look awful with lots of annual weeds. However in subsequent years the perennial seeds really take off. Nature sorts out what works and what doesn’t and establishes a stable community of plants.

     The Land Institute is now working out the management of such a system, when to mow, when to leave alone, if and when to burn, when to turn it over to grazing and how to harvest the various crops in the field. This system is more like sustainable forestry – waiting until the system is mature before harvesting – and then reaping only what is ready and leaving the rest to mature. A polyculture provides the best protection against disaster. There will always be varieties that will flourish in any given conditions.

     The replicated prairie is proving that it can provide high enough yields to compete with a monoculture, that pests and disease can’t get a foothold due to the large variety of plants in one field, and that it can provide its own nitrogen with various legumes. Jackson believes we can fundamentally change our agricultural systems using this model of a perennial polyculture. It would look different in a forest, a desert or in a wetland, but the basic premise remains the same – use wilderness as our model.

     Still a ways off from replacing our monoculture practices, the work of The Land Institute holds great promise in restoring our food production system to one that is humane, ecologically sound, and safe for all.

          Suggested reading: Much of this article was derived from Janine M. Benyus’ brilliant book Biomimicry, published in 1997 by William Morrow and Co. For more

information on The Land Institute you may contact them at: 2440 W. Water Well Road, Salina, KS 67401, phone (785) 823-5376, fax (785) 823-8728, e-mail – theland@landinstitute.org, and web site: www.landinstitute.org.

Forest Gardens

Our forests are magical places. Whether in the tropical lushness of the mighty Amazon, in the majestic evergreens of the Pacific Northwest, or in the bio-diverse hardwoods of the Appalachians, every forest system carries out an amazing array of chemical and biological functions as well as provides homes for a multitude of plants, animals and fungi. The great forests of the world are the lungs of Mother Earth, absorbing carbon dioxide and releasing precious live-giving oxygen. The essence of all life, water, springs to life in the deepest recesses of the forests. The human soul is nourished by their beauty and stillness. Many cultures depend upon the health of the forests for their very survival.

     Forest gardening or agroforestry is an agriculture and life-style system that takes the blueprint from our forests and applies it to a man-made system that is diverse, highly productive and stable. The laws of plant symbiosis govern the forest garden where all plants are compatible and nourishing to each other in some way. Forest gardens have proven to be the most productive of all land uses achieving the utmost in space and labor.

     From India to Nairobi, and from Indonesia to Nigeria these complete and self-sustaining systems have been replicated as diverse, high yield agricultural systems, providing food, timber, fuel, oils, medicines and crafts. The forest gardens in Kerala, India and Nairobi have allowed families to become self-sufficient and have renewed and restored healthy ecological structures.

     No fewer than three and half million-forest gardens provide food, fuel and cash crops for the residents of the Indian state of Kerala. This area of the world is perhaps the most advanced in terms of agroforestry. Kerala, the most densely populated state in India is a long, narrow strip of land between the Western Ghat mountains and the Arabian Sea. The land is mostly infertile, acidic and badly drained and much of the coastline is marshy with Mangrove swamps. Despite the unfavorable conditions, the creative people of Kerala have managed to become self-sufficient and productive through the use of the forest garden.

     Industries in this forest garden area include the making of furniture and baskets, the processing of cocoa, rubber-tapping, cashew-nut processing, the building of bullock-carts and catamarans, pineapple canning, match-making, the manufacture of pandanus mats, oil distillation and the processing of coir fibers from coconuts. Many families have also become energy self-sufficient by running their own biogas plants using human, animal, vegetable and household wastes. The slurry from these biogas plants along with the crop residues and nitrifying leguminous plants eliminates the need for chemical fertilizers.

     On a small plot of land consisting of only 0.3 acres, one study group found an extraordinary intensity of cultivation, including twenty-three young coconut palms, twelve cloves, fifty-six bananas, forty-nine pineapples, and thirty pepper vines trained up the trees. The family also grew fodder for a house-cow, along with medicinal herbs, spices and vegetables in the under story. These marvelous gardens provide an average family of six to eight people with food, occupations and trade goods.  

     These systems have been prevalent throughout the rain forest regions of the world for hundreds of years. In the last twenty years Western science has begun to take a closer look at the forest garden and its precise multi-storied structure that provides so much for so many. Once considered a chaotic haphazard system, the forest garden is now looked upon with respect bordering on reverence. These well-planned gardens are mini-ecological preserves.

     A forest garden consists of seven “stories” of trees and plants just as in a natural forest. Fruit, nut and forage trees, such as honey locust or carob constitute the canopy layer with dwarf fruit trees the low-tree layer. The third story is the shrub layer with currants, berries, and roses. The fourth layer is the herbaceous layer with perennial herbs and vegetables. Number five is the vertical layer with climbing berries, nasturtiums, runner beans, grapes or yams trained up trees or over fences. Layer six is the ground cover layer with creeping plants. The seventh layer is the rhizosphere with the root vegetables and shade tolerant plants. Most gardens have many of these layers grown separately. The forest garden puts them all together, which allows for plant symbiosis and maximum efficiency of space.  

     Symbiosis or living together for mutual aid is a basic law of life. As Robert Hart states in his book Forest Gardening, “Evolution is a holistic process, the development of ever more complex, integrated organisms, involving a spiritual element which ensures that the whole is more than the sum of the parts. The living cell is a miracle of coordinated, cooperative activity.”

     This basic law can be seen throughout nature. In all eco-systems there lies intense diversity, which allows for all organisms to reach their maximum potential while nurturing their fellow plants and animals. An example of this symbiosis is the roots of leguminous plants and their association with soil bacteria to extract nitrogen from the air and make it available to other plants. Other examples include certain flowers that carry out their pollination process using insects as the carrier from male to female flowers. The process is carried out in ingenious ways using nectars, colors and shapes to attract various insects and bees.

     The endless multitude of symbiotic relationships amongst nature’s flora and fauna provide the stable foundation from which evolution takes place. When we replace this diversity with a monoculture, we unravel the very tapestry of life and we find that our own existence becomes more tenuous. Evolution takes a downward spiral instead of the upward spiral of ever more diverse and ever more complex and evolved life forms.

    The established forest garden has certain common traits. It is self-perpetuating because almost all the plants grown are perennials or self-seeders. It is self-fertilizing because the deep-rooted trees and bushes that draw upon minerals in the sub-soil make them available to their neighbors as well as the nitrogen fixing legumes. It is self-watering because those same deep-roots tap into the spring veins and pump up water for the whole system. It is self-mulching and self-weeding due to the creeping plants that create a kind of a living mulch. It is self-pollinating because trees are selected to compatible and the various flowering plants attract insects. It is resistant to pests and disease because of the plants that attract beneficial insects and deter pests, and the diversity disallows for any disease to take hold.[i]

     Forest gardens are somewhat new to North America and are being experimented with in various parts of the country. Rob Danford has one such garden on one-acre high above the town of Boone in the northwest mountains of North Carolina. On a recent visit during a farm tour one could walk through the diverse herb, vegetable and flower garden as well as the “forest”.  Rob bubbles with enthusiasm when showing off his latest plantings and harvests. The world of farming using nature’s blueprint is a magical world to Rob, his eyes sparkling with childlike wonder at the miracle of it.

     His forest garden is a work in progress, as many such gardens tend to be. He has planted Black Locust for their nitrogen-fixing properties, quick growth and excellent timber. The Black Locusts are joined by chestnut, apple, pear and plum trees. Many varieties of blueberry bushes dot the under story with medicinal herbs and sun chokes hovering along the ground while a hardy kiwi vine snakes up a locust tree. Rob continues to experiment every year in his forest garden adding new plants to the mix.

    With farmland becoming scarcer and industrial agriculture taking over much of our food production, the forest garden offers an alternative to many communities and families who wish to have healthy, organic food locally grown. Even on very small acreage, a family can grown much of their food needs using this unique system.

    Robert Hart in England has written the definitive book on forest gardening. A pioneer of permaculture and agroforestry, his insights and hard work have created the standard for the temperate forest garden. With universities on both sides of the ocean taking up the research in agroforestry, we will soon see this viable agricultural system sprouting up in commercial applications as well as home gardens everywhere spelling the end to the destructive monoculture practices and the renewal of our essential ecological biodiversity.

     For more information the best book on the subject is, Forest Gardening, by Robert Hart, Chelsea Green Publishing Co. Also a hands-on guide and great reference, How to Make a Forest Garden, Patrick Whitefield, also put out by Chelsea Green Publishing.

[i] Hart, Robert, Forest Gardening, Chelsea Green Publishing, 1991, pg. 52

Nature as Teacher and Guide

     The word nature conjures up all sorts of images; dense green forests, intricately colored flowers, a myriad of unusual wildlife, swiftly flowing rivers, vast oceans and secret places untouched by humans. At its core, nature is a highly intelligent consciousness responsible for the order and organization of the entire universe. All the various systems we rely upon for our well being such as photosynthesis, the growth of plants we use for food, the ability of trees to purify the air, our own miraculous physiology and the orbit of the planets are designed and maintained by the intelligence called nature.

     In her book, “Co-creative Science” Machaelle Small Wright asks nature to define itself. Using her ability to communicate with this intelligence she writes:

      “Nature is the consciousness that is intimately linked with form. Nature is the consciousness that comprises all form on all levels and dimensions. It is form’s order, organization and life vitality. Nature is first and foremost a consciousness of equal importance with all other consciousness in the largest scheme of reality. It expresses and functions uniquely in that it comprises all form on all levels and dimensions and is responsible for and creates all of form’s order, organization and life vitality.”

      From this profound quote, we understand that nature is the consciousness responsible for the organization of all the phenomenal creation we see around us. Nature is not only capable of tremendous creativity and adaptability, but is also constantly striving to keep balance. It is this intelligence that without human interference keeps our world functioning smoothly and efficiently.

      If the age of planet earth were squeezed into one year of our time, mankind shows up fifteen minutes before midnight at the end of that year. All of man’s recorded history would speed by in sixty seconds. The dynamic biodiversity of plants, animals and microbes that fill the oceans, forests, prairies and sky would have been evolving since March of our compressed year, an astounding 3.8 billion years since the first bacteria.[i]

     Nature has been orchestrating life effortlessly for eons of time with human beings mere newcomers. It has evolved systems that are intricate in their design and comprehensive in their scope. So unfathomable are her ways that the human mind is unable to grasp the intelligence that creates it all. Instead we liken nature to a machine, a collection of parts accidentally working things out. We think we are the top of the evolutionary heap and can therefore subdue and dominate nature. That notion is changing into one that includes humankind as an integral part of the complex web of life.

     We see vast intelligence all around us, and in fact we don’t have to look too far, our own physiology displays a universe unto itself, full of wonder and profoundly efficient systems. This machine we call our body will never be duplicated by human invention. It is a product of natural laws that are deeper than our current mechanistic technology can explore or explain completely. Our mighty forests when left alone carry out a myriad of complex chemical and biological processes with efficiency and order. Even the diminutive ant colony shows tremendous intelligence and adaptability.

Nature has perfected the complicated science of capturing the sun’s power and turning it into usable energy, has built materials stronger than steel, learned to fly with speed and precision, and designed a weather system that keeps life’s systems afloat. Even though nature follows laws that are immutable and eternal, it is ever evolving within itself. This government of nature has managed to orchestrate life without fouling the air, soil and water and mortgaging our future.[i]

     It is high time that we head back into the classroom of life and take our lessons and cues from the wild things. We are part of a living system and cannot take ourselves out of that equation and expect to survive as a species. Nature has a way of adjusting excess in order to keep a balance. We are pushing the envelope and exceeding our place. By working within the parameters laid out for us, everyone will have plenty and nature will reward us with bounty.

     This is not to say that we have to do with less, or that the rich have to give away to the poor. It’s about living in accord with the laws of nature, to be part of the system and not the dominator trying to subdue nature and extract what we can in order to make a profit at all costs. We must partner ourselves with the intelligence and the marvelous order in nature.

      In order to abide by nature’s constitution, we first must uncover the template that makes up that blueprint. From the ancient seers steeped in all-knowing consciousness, to the new biologists, down to the modern-day ecologists trampling through forest and meadow, many inquisitive minds have uncovered the laws and principles that show up again and again.

     These principles, ever apparent throughout nature, are the guides for our lives, our designs, and systems. If we check our plans with this blueprint, we can orchestrate our world in a way that creates progress and evolution for all, instead of disharmony and destruction.  

     Some of these principles are:

     Nature exhibits extreme intelligence in all her systems, working out the mechanics of creation effortlessly with an unfathomable intricacy of design. All the pieces work together while the whole creates more than the sum of the parts.

     Nature’s systems are orderly; there is great order in the seeming chaos of nature. Spring always follows winter, the planets orbit around the sun in a repetitive cycle, the leaves fall off the trees every autumn and reappear every spring, and the tides ebb and flow.

     Nature is efficient, always recycling and reusing. Nature runs on sunlight, uses only the energy it needs, and never wastes it. Nature fits form to function.

     Nature is economical, administering the whole universe through nature’s principle of least action, with maximum efficiency and without exertion, problems or mistakes.

     Nature is nourishing and renewing. There are cycles everywhere that are in a constant flux of creating, maintaining, destroying and rebuilding. Nature is eternally evolving from within itself.

     Nature is invincible and law-abiding, never defeated or thwarted in its operation and functioning according to its own unvarying laws.

     Nature governs itself automatically; the laws are built into the system.

Nature is bountiful and diverse, creating the rich abundance of flora and fauna, ever renewing and perpetuating itself. Nature banks upon this very diversity to maintain stability within its systems.

     These principles are being rediscovered and adapted to the complexity of human endeavors with phenomenal success by the “bioneers” and the “biomimics”. They are utilizing the laws of nature to redesign our systems, clean up our messes and change the way we go about our business. They are growing food like a prairie, creating dense highly productive forest gardens, using mushrooms to clean up toxic waste and “living machines” to turn sewage into drinkable water. They are discovering how to capture energy from space, the magic contained in wild rivers, how businesses are adapting “The Natural Steps” to align themselves with nature, and how “good” bugs eliminate the need for pesticides. They are educating our children to unleash the genius inside of every child. They are using the laws of physics to create world peace. They are becoming partners with nature, instead of adversaries attempting to tame or control nature.

    This is our next great journey, a journey that will take humankind into the inner realms of spirit where life is not about the acquisition of stuff, but about the acquisition of knowledge at the deepest levels.

     I hope you enjoy this journey and that you will incorporate its lessons into your own life. It is inspiring that so many great minds and hearts are at work in our world today rediscovering the ways to bring harmony back to a beleaguered world.

[i] Benyus, Janine, Biomimcry, Wm Morrow & Co., 1997, pg.2