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A Sensible Strategy Facing an Uphill Battle
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20078 |
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Section : |
NATURAL SCIENCE
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| Issue
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12 / 1992 |
1,613 Words |
| Author
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Frederick Kirschenmann
Frederick Kirschenmann is the manager of the organic and
biodynamic Kirschenmann Family Farms in Windsor, North
Dakota. |
Wes Jackson has steadfastly rejected the attribution of "prophet" to describe his role in society--and with some justification. Jackson points out that prophets traditionally represent "truth speaking to power" in nondemocratic societies. But we live in a democracy wherein the prophetic task is a collective responsibility and attributing the role of prophet to a select few has the effect of "letting the rest of us off the hook." Jackson wants to let no one off the hook.
But Jackson is a prophet nonetheless. He has a keen memory of the past, a passionate mission for the present, and a clear vision for the future. These are the principal traits of the traditional prophet. Moreover, while prophets were "chosen by God" in ancient societies, the community had to differentiate the "true" prophets from the "false." Consequently the community did share in the prophetic responsibility.
Furthermore, Jackson has made some prophetic contributions to our society. They revolve around three seminal ideas: that we (1) use nature's wisdom, rather than human cleverness as our standard; (2) develop a food production system for the Plains that mimics the prairie, utilizing an array of perennial grasses grown together, rather than a monocultured annual grain; and (3) recognize the indispensability of the human resource factor in land husbandry. Each of these ideas presents a clear mandate for social change. Each poses some difficulties.
Appreciate the complexity
The industrial era, which has relied almost solely on human cleverness as a means for creating a new Garden of Eden on earth, has left us with a set of ecological disasters that may threaten the very survival of humans on the planet. It has therefore become mandatory that we learn to appreciate the ecological complexity of earth's evolutionary ecosystems before we act upon them. Only this kind of whole system, earth-centered, geologic-time oriented thinking can begin to mitigate the damage.
Human cleverness is almost always rooted in short memory and is focused only on immediate human needs, generally seeking only to solve isolated problems. Actions that grow out of such shallow, reductionist understandings are bound to cause damage.
Consecrating nature as the standard is therefore essential to our survival. Human survival now dictates that we look to the complex, interconnected ecosystems that
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