WEEKLY HARVESTS
Botany, Sustainability, and
Self-Sufficiency - oh my!
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"Fungi are veteran survivors of ecological disruption. Their ability to cling on—and often flourish—through periods of catastrophic change is one of their defining characteristics.
They are inventive, flexible, and collaborative. With much of life on Earth threatened by human activity, are there ways we can partner with fungi to help us adapt?
...Many symbioses have formed in times of crisis.
The algal partner in a lichen can’t make a living on bare rock without striking up a relationship with a fungus. Might it be that we can’t adjust to life on a damaged planet without cultivating new fungal relationships.”
- Merlin Sheldrake, Entangled Life
"Food, medicine, fibre… people are going to be able to produce all that themselves with mushrooms. And they can also reclaim waste and create more value out of that waste. From coffee grounds or straw or wood chips, you can grow mushrooms then have incredible soil and grow more food from that. It’s a really great way to create more value for yourself through having good soil and water"
- William Padilla Brown, mycologist
"The soil is the great connector of lives, the source and destination of all. It is the healer and restorer and resurrector, by which disease passes into health, age into youth, death into life. Without proper care for it we can have no community, because without proper care for it we can have no life.”
- Wendell Berry, The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture
“Upon this handful of soil our survival depends”
– Sanskrit text,1500 BC
“With soil, there’s so much going on that is so close to us, that’s so interesting and multifaceted, that affects our lives in so many ways—and it’s just lying there beneath our feet.”
-Kate Scow, microbial ecologist
“It’s easy to ignore. It’s everywhere and it’s nowhere. That’s the challenge. But if soil is alive, it’s like someone you can create a relationship with.”
-Kate Scow, microbial ecologist
“This is ancient knowledge, really. When you increase soil organic matter in the soil, good things happen. But climate change is bringing new attention to it. And regardless of climate change, we should be doing this for many reasons—for productivity, erosion control, drought tolerance. It’s going back to our roots, no pun intended.”
-Pelayo Alvarez, outreach director for the Petaluma-based Carbon Cycle Institute
“Soils are the basis of life, ninety five percent of our food comes from the soil.”
–Maria-Helena Semedo
"People often ask me what one thing I would recommend to restore relationship between land and people. My answer is almost always, “Plant a garden.” It’s good for the health of the earth and it’s good for the health of people. A garden is a nursery for nurturing connection, the soil for cultivation of practical reverence. And its power goes far beyond the garden gate—once you develop a relationship with a little patch of earth, it becomes a seed itself. Something essential happens in a vegetable garden. It’s a place where if you can’t say “I love you” out loud, you can say it in seeds. And the land will reciprocate, in beans.”
- Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass
"But man is a part of nature, and his war against nature is inevitably a war against himself."
- Rachel Carson, environmentalist
“What motivates me is not only reconnecting with my ancestral seeds, but also helping other people do the same. Everything that I do grow, I've been gifted, or I have a relationship with it. It’s not just a winter squash, it’s this tribal squash with this type of story. It’s not just an item, but it’s more, it’s something that we can all get deeply connected to.”
-Jessika Greendeer
“In some Native languages the term for plants translates to “those who take care of us.”
-Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass
“A tree has roots in the soil yet reaches to the sky. It tells us that in order to aspire we need to be grounded and that no matter how high we go, it is from our roots that we draw sustenance.”
-Wangari Maathai, tree activist
"Forests are trees holding hands underground.”
–Jeffrey Campbell, head of the Forest Farm Facility of the FAO
“What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.”
-Dr Jane Goodall, Scientist & Activist
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
-Margaret Mead, anthropologist
To be hopeful means to be uncertain about the future, to be tender toward possibilities, to be dedicated to change all the way down to the bottom of your heart.
-Rebecca Solnit, Author
“What do you need to solve the climate crisis? The answer is, everyone.”
-Katharine Hayhoe, Activist and Writer
“If we can get everybody around the world to love nature, to appreciate nature, and to make sure that we are doing this from deep within our hearts and deep within ourselves, then we can change so much in the world within a short period of time,”
-Elizabeth Wathuti, Activist
"Saving our planet, lifting people out of poverty, advancing economic growth... these are one and the same fight. We must connect the dots between climate change, water scarcity, energy shortages, global health, food security and women's empowerment. Solutions to one problem must be solutions for all."
-Ban Ki-moon, 8th secretary-general of the UN
“What we have found, however, is that the conservation of wildlife--allowing species to play their functional roles in ecosystems--offers untapped potential as a solution to climate change. A genuine and urgent investment in species rewilding, combined with efforts to halt deforestation and rewild those degraded wildlands in addition to transitioning to renewable energy, is enough to stave off the worsening effects of climate change.”
-Andrew Tilker, Re:wild species conservation coordinator
“Biodiversity carries significant importance for Indigenous Communities. We rely on biodiversity to function in our daily lives, conduct our ceremonies, traditions, and culture. Our lifestyles also foster biodiversity. We use our Indigenous Knowledge, wisdom, and culture in managing our community biodiversity in creating future sustainability."
-Mr. Manop Boonyuen
“Wildlife, throughout their interaction with the environment, are the missing link between biodiversity and climate. Rewilding is the best nature-based climate solution available to humankind. Working with nature is the only ‘geoengineering’ option to solve the climate emergency.”
-Oswald Schmitz, professor at the Yale School of the Environment
“I can’t imagine anything more important than air, water, soil, energy and biodiversity. These are the things that keep us alive.”
— David Suzuki, Environmental Activist and Zoologist
"Take care of the waste on the farm and turn it into useful channels should be the slogan of every farmer.
-George Washington Carver, scientist and regenerative agriculturist
"Young people, I want to beg of you always keep your eyes open to what Mother Nature has to teach you. By so doing you will learn many valuable things every day of your life."
-George Washington Carver, scientist and regenerative agriculturist
"The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings."
-Masanobu Fukuoka, author of the One Straw Revolution
“If grief can be a door way to love, then let us all weep for the world we are breaking apart so we can love it back to wholeness again”
-Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass
“We are on Earth to take care of life. We are on Earth to take care of each other.”
-Xiye Bastida
“A vibrant, fair, and regenerative future is possible — not when thousands of people do climate justice activism perfectly but when millions of people do the best they can.”
-Xiye Bastida, climate justice activist
“We need to have a whole cultural shift, where it becomes our culture to take care of the Earth, and in order to make this shift, we need storytelling about how the Earth takes care of us and how we can take care of her.”
-Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, co-editor of All We Can Save
