Complimentary Blueberry Juice

An errand for some supplies. The product we usually get was sold out, or awaiting delivery. We were offered a similar product as a replacement. Upon closer inspection, this “similar product” included some odd trademarked “additives,” which were of mysterious patented origins. The package also included this very helpful note:

WEAR GLOVES WHILE HANDLING THIS PRODUCT.

WASH AND RINSE AFTER SKIN CONTACT.

Now I don’t know about you, but for a growing medium, that seems a little much. The whole conversation I had with the sales man around this product left me a little bit bewildered.

Why are we growing plants in things that we shouldn’t touch?

Life on this planet of earth is all cut from the same molecular cloth. Humans and plants use the same Adenosine Triphosphate to derive and carry cellular energy. Our forms and functions may differ but as far as molecular metabolism goes, there are a great many similarities, across all the rest of the creatures under the very broad umbrella of life on earth, from insects to fish to fungus to moss to human.

In the line of work that is farming (or agriculture, horticulture, growing plants for a living) I encounter a lot of things that make me raise at least one eyebrow. Advising against skin contact when talking about potting soil is one of them. Soluble fertilizers is another (you’re absolutely going to want to avoid skin contact with soluble fertilizers!) Herbicides, fungicides, pesticides, and biocides, molecules designed by humans in labs are yet another. At the same time, I wonder what it is that has embedded itself in our broader culture that the most widely accepted theory about how plants grow is that they need a concoction of chemical ions. They need magic stuff, secret sauce, trademarked potions and, by the way, use gloves.

Plants are not aliens. They are life here, on our planet. They are our brothers and sisters, they are partners in this path that we call life on earth. They are symbionts, and we need them to live, to breathe. We need to eat them,so that we can get the necessary ingredients we need to metabolize. We may also eat animals, who became animals because they ate plants. We need trees for materials, and aesthetically pleasing plants for enjoyment. It is a very, very long list.

I would like to submit the following: if you can’t touch it, why would a plant touch it?

A little empathy..

A plant is a living, breathing creature. They are like you: they require water, they require air (and they require light). They also require food. But you and I don’t chug down a few litres of Essential Nutrients™ for every meal. Pretty soon you would be missing actual food.

These are remarkable creatures. There is so much more going on than we even dare to imagine, and much of it is yet to be described and articulated. Plant science grows by leaps and bounds every decade. But I would also submit that chemistry and science is only a part of the story. The other part of the story is what logic and deductive reasoning can tell us and illuminate about these incredible life forms that we co-habit earth with Itt will be a long time before we know the full story, and we might never know the whole story. The things yet to be discovered and understood about plants are as vast as the known universe.

We also happen to live in an age where consumerism and marketing consumer products inevitably leads us. Farmers and horticulturalists are also consumers of many various products and are also very susceptible to these things. We are all at least a little bit insecure about knowing the fact that we really don’t know how plants work, from famers to all of us who have rescued plants from certain furniture stores.

So it is easy to go for the Magic Potion™. The one that promises results. The one that promises productivity. The one that comes from the package that says please wash your hands. The one that says do not consume. But then we consume it.

Have you have ever seen a plant growing in a compost pile?

Have you have ever walked in an untouched forest?

Then you know.

There’s a lot more questions we need to be asking.

Stay curious

Graham

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