This is a deep and thought-provoking article about plant intelligence, written by Michael Pollan, author of “Omnivore’s Delimma”, and others.
I think it elegantly exposes some of the limitations of science (without actually coming out against anything), yet also some of the benefits of genuinely rigorous scientific research.
My question is: Michael, how about including a segment about the indigenous perspective on plant intelligence?
The perspective that does not question, even for a second, that of course plants are intelligent, and can
also provide guidance for our adolescent and sometimes reckless species.
The article brings to mind this quote from Masanobu Fukuoko, the masterful Japanese farmer, author of “One Straw Revolution”.
“Notions of right and wrong, good and bad, are alien to nature. The living and holistic biosystem that is
nature cannot be dissected or resolved into its parts. Once broken down, it dies. Or rather, those who break off a piece of nature
lay hold of something that is dead, and, unaware that what they are examining is no longer what they think it to be, claim to
understand nature. Man commits a grave error when he collects data and findings piecemeal on a dead and fragmented
nature and claims to “know”, “use,” or “conquer” nature. (Inevitably,) everything winds up wrong.”
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/12/23/131223fa_fact_pollan?currentPage=all
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