eGarden © 2005 Ed Mues

From The Garden of Ed. Submitted for publication in The Towne Crier on March 23, 2005

The Force That Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower #2

... is a continuation of my overview of the history of plants and their important influence on man.

Plants' Mysterious Workings
Their cultural and biological development can be miraculous.

I believe in miracles. Do you? A green shoot emerges. It contains within all the knowledge it needs to break through the earth, elongate, branch, leaf out, flower and fruit - even to the last vein, cell, tendril, and hair. Accompanying this miraculous process are responses from hosts of life forms including insects, birds, and the human spirit. The infinite variety of flowers and leaves impresses our human perception far beyond what I imagine "nature" intended.

The plant, in all likelihood, is going about its vital business of growing and reproducing to keep its species going. We are the sentimental beings. Our humanity provokes, almost dictates, our response. We see beauty of the first order. From the plant's point of view, I'm sure it's just perfect performance of function. Nothing more.

Survival takes preference over beauty in the plant world, and hopefully, in man's world as well. We need plants to survive in order that we may survive. We must never lose sight of this fact. Whether wheat or potato, a lamb fed on grass, a pheasant plump from seeds and fruit, or a fish heavy from other sea life, man and all the animals depend on what plants provide.

Step back in time with me for a moment. Ten thousand years ago something revolutionary took place. Early (Neolithic) man began to practice what he had been observing plants doing for a couple of thousand years. He sowed seeds. Instead of obtaining his food from what he could find, he began to cultivate his own food. He had choices to make, and, expanding on locations as well, he was soon successfully producing rice, wheat and maize.

What followed was astonishing: food surpluses led to greater nourishment, which led to rapid population growth, which led to closer living conditions. The domestication of animals was soon to follow and a need was fulfilled. Sadly, the spread of infectious disease was one consequence.

What was born was the development of civilization, benefits and problems included. Abundance here, and starvation there. The need for food was at the center of jealousy, conquest and imperialism. Global exploration during the Renaissance was spurred not by necessity but by the desire for economic leverage. This was measured at the beginning by trade in pepper and cloves, and later by sugar.

We all tend to view the history of the world through the lens of influential figures like monarchs, politicians and warriors. A look behind the scenes at one plant or another and the longing for and greed associated with its ownership, reveals another history. Consider just a few well-known examples. Fishing fleets became navies for many nations in pursuit of desired plant products; millions of residents of Africa became slaves for cotton; it was a tax on tea that glued the early colonies into an independent federation.

Did you know that food plants and religions were once nearly inseparable? The land, the crops, and the regeneration each spring - these invigorated the mind and the body. The recurring miracle provoked awe and mystery and respect, key ingredients in worship. As winter stores diminished, plants, once again, rescued the human race. I mentioned in my first installment that the plants that provided the nourishment became the metaphor for the source of all existence - the tree of life.

The fortification of this belief came from a curious group of plants that acted on the conscious mind. Thought processes and powers of perception were altered. Doors of awareness, normally locked, were opened. Some of these plants were eaten directly. Other required preparation. The effects of the plants produced a variety of experiences. For some, life's problems were answered or annulled. Some had startling insights or ecstasies. Others spoke of having a kinship with all of creation.

When analyzed, the plant ingredients were chemicals, often alkaloids. Since these influences over man's spirit were so profound, people began to seek plants with equally powerful effects over man's body. The art of healing was inextricably connected to knowledge of plants. Experts in the herbal healing arts were elevated to prestigious positions that rivaled that of kings. What these few was "magic".

Today, ethnobotanists comb the least explored regions of the world seeking to discover the secrets of shamans and sorcerers. And, sometimes they return with pharmacological treasures.

Formerly, the power of plants to heal was closely related to rituals and religious ceremonies. Relics of plant worship are still preserved in some churches and ancient artifacts, but, sadly, the majority no longer recognizes the seminal role plants play in our lives.

And, now the big "Why?" Because our crops so often come to us completely divorced from their natural surroundings, without a hint of the climate, or a whiff of the air or soil they inhabited. A few paragraphs previous, I mentioned "economic leverage". It is about trade and cornering the market. Economic leverage equals money equals power.

Expeditions heavily financed by pharmaceutical enterprises are now engaging in bio-piracy, raping poor nations in distant lands of their biological wealth in the name of medicine. Once again, plants are effecting changes, now, from the wings of desire.

In the closing decades of the last century, fears about the world's inability to feed its growing population became the central focus of the giant agribusinesses. Did you know they produce, manufacture and market 95% of the food in the U.S. and control more than 80% of the land around the world that is cultivated for crops?

In 1994, the "Flavr Savr" tomato was introduced to U.S. supermarkets ushering in the second revolution in agriculture in 10,000 years: genetic engineering. The goal of the new biotechnology was to improve crops. The word "improve" had everything positive in mind: improved pest resistance, stress resistance, chemical resistance, nutrition, production efficiencies, reduced fertilizer input, you name it. This was a technology for the day. A technology in a hurry. I wonder if economic leverage figured into it.

Have no doubt about the following. Genetic modification had been going on for at least 10,000 years. Man had been crossing and inducing mutations and had very many successes. But these consumed much time and were unpredictable. Genetic engineering is highly selective and highly predictable. Inserting a cold tolerance gene from an arctic flounder into a strawberry plant resulted in a strawberry for colder climates and/or a longer growing season.

Starlink corn (1998) was the result of inserting a bacteria and a virus into the plant's genetic makeup. This would confer resistance to glufosinate herbicide used to control weeds in cornfields, and resistance to European cornborer, a major insect pest of corn in the U.S. Did it work? You bet!

The problem? It was not designed to be consumed by humans, yet wound up in our food supply until withdrawn from the market by Aventis, its developer.

trees
A crisis was reached in bioengineering in 1998 when a new variety of corn was deemed unsafe for human consumption.

Introducing a foreign gene into an organism produces uncertainty about both the gene's function and the function of the DNA into which it is inserted. Hence, questions about nutritional havoc. Environmental havoc, too.

Is it a fish gene or a cold tolerance gene? What about allergic reactions?

Can't pollen from one of these plants float away and influence a normal plant? We now know the answer is yes, of course. We didn't think about that...

Taking a look back at my introduction to this series, I ask rhetorically, the following question: What happened to man's idea of heaven as nature's reality, unimproved, untampered with? A garden, Eden?

to be continued... ( previous #1 of 7 ) ( next #3 of 7 )

From The Garden of Ed. Submitted for publication in The Towne Crier on March 23, 2005

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