I work on an organic farm. It's a great job for lots of reasons.
While weeding leeks, I paid attention to how many edible, medicinal or otherwise useful plants ("weeds") were ripped up and tossed into the space between rows to be walked on by farm workers and baked into oblivion by the hot sun.
What a waste.
I've been brainstorming of a way to avoid treating these plants so awfully. Plenty of hungry, poor people could use these plants.
Due to the diminishing returns of modern food production methods, I see these plants playing a larger role in people's diets as time goes on.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
The fact that they were left in place, in the row between crops, means they were not 'wasted' but rather returned to the Earth. Wasted is when the community garden landowner hauls all the weeds (the beings with their long roots that brought up so many minerals from deep within the garden soil) to the trash. I do agree, eat the weeds, and yet, if you wish to not do so, leaving them in place as an interim step is not sooo awful. Eating them is, of course, the best long step to honor them.
ReplyDeleteTrue, Megan! My wife brought up that same point and forgot to include it. Thanks!
ReplyDelete