If we take out of the earth by selectively growing individual plants we want to eat, we have a responsibility to replenish those soil nutrients that have been disproportionately depleted by our monoculture habits: is that an assumption we’re in agreement on?

Id est, if we’re not reverting to a hunting and gathering culture, aren’t we forced into some kind of contrived re-balancing? There are better and worse ways to do that – organic re-balancing would be my uninformed choice – but monocultures (gardens for the gardener, flax fields for the farmer) by design aren’t mother nature’s usual way of distributing plant species, so aren’t we stuck with contrived products if organic re-balancing doesn’t address the particular deficits we create? (I seem to remember from my foodie days that organic does do the best job, but not in all cases…)

What about cost? If a marginal farmer in a developing nation can afford to partially re-balance his soil with bagged chemicals, but can’t get it all the way back to healthy with more time and labour intensive organic means because there’s only one of him and one ox to every 2 acres needing attention, which moral good to we opt for? His short-term, individual survival (continue to sell him the chemicals), or a greater chance for the long-term survival of the species? What if we finesse the necessity to opt, by planning that, in his case, bags of chemicals might be an acceptable bridging solution, though that’s certainly not the original intention we had when we started marketing to him: a bridge until we’ve figured out ways to make organic replenishment cheaper and less labour-intensive?

Not that we’re doing much of that. Personally, I’d love to legislate that the fertilizer industry allocate 1% of it’s profits to research in getting organic replenishment costs down, just to see what would result.

Anyway, Common Wealth has now made the priority list on my reading plans, thanks to your post.

aunt bee

I too had my eyes opened and better understood global society as a result of this book. But there are those little questions, like the fertilizer and the drought-resistant seeds (are they GMO?), that nag.

Overall, a very important read, though, even if not all of his solutions are perfect. Thanks for reviewing this.