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After reading the chapters from The One Straw Revolution I thought of the saying “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” I felt that this was extremely relevant to the topic we are discussing as the author adopts a practice where he interferes little with his garden. It seems that humans have a tendency to just want to change things up and “fix” them even if there are in good condition. People have been eating crops and fruit without using the chemicals we use today and have been able to survive. However, we are constantly putting chemicals into the soil and into the fruits to fix a problem that we ourselves created.
Without any type of human interference, jungles and forests grow and have been growing for thousands of years. Paradoxically, the human work to improve plant growth has only resulted in harm to nature. Some chemicals that were applied to farms have gotten into rivers and lakes and harmed the natural environment in them.
The author explained that engineers often create a problem to solution, but that there solution only creates more problems. There is no need for the use of this many chemicals and even if they are to be used, they shouldn’t be the norm. Plants are able to grow without heavy human interference so they should be allowed to grow that way.
I remember once I bought a cactus with my brother. We asked the store worker the best way to take care of it and he simply said “nothing.” Of course, it is a cactus so it really doesn’t need to be watered much, but this kind of philosophy does and should apply to other crops that we grow. We can grow fruits and vegetables without these chemicals but because we have already been using them it is hard to turn away.