Agraria_Journal_Summer_2022

AGRARIA JOURNAL 2022 13 compost, as a way to make households and farmers resilient through the transition from a deeply unjust and unhealthy system of farming built on stolen land and labor. He also invented the Jessup Agricultural Wagon, a mobile classroom that served as a model adopted by USDA cooperative extension services. Carver gave the credit for his work to his love of plants and flowers and his habit of listening to them and to spirit every day. He knew, for example, that the peanut would be an antidote to cotton-ravaged soils, but that farmers could not grow it unless there was a market for it. One morning, he asked God about the peanut: He told me, ‘separate the peanut into water, fats, oils, gums, resins, sugars, starches, and amino acids. Then recombine these under My three laws of compatibility, temperature, and pressure.’ Then, the Lord said, ‘then you will know why I made the peanut!’ Thereafter, in his famously bookless laboratory, Carver invented over 300 uses for the peanut, including food and beverages, soap, insecticide, medicines and glues. He likewise promoted the sweet potato, cow peas, local dyes and their products. The need for regional self-sufficiency increased in the world war years, when fertilizer was scarce and expensive. Carver encouraged farmers to be involved not just in growing but also in processing and distribution of food and taught its preservation through canning and drying. In his later years, Carter realized that conventional agriculture’s focus on yield, chemical fertilizers, and expensive technology worked against farmers and the planet; he cautioned that chemicals in the soil likely impacted nutrition and made their way into humans. A CALL TO LISTEN This is a time to take lessons from mosses. —Robin Wall Kimmerer Our challenges today, like those faced by farmers in Carver’s time, are both practical and systemic. They have to do not only with rebuilding soils and finding new sources of income for farmers, but also with the process of transforming a deeply disruptive and inequitable food system to one that serves people and the planet. Regenerative agriculture is a systemic answer–rooted in practices that build soil, improve nutrient density, recreate equitable regional food systems, repair hydrological cycles and cool the planet. Both regenerative agriculture and permaculture borrow from age-old practices of Indigenous peoples. But just as Carver’s role as a pioneer in the field of organic agriculture has been ignored, modern-day activists and farmers often erase the Indigenous origins of regenerative agriculture and permaculture, according to “Whitewashed Hope,” a 2020 message from Indigenous leaders and organizations. And they also fail to include the bedrock understandings of people as nature and nature as intelligent and alive. Like many other Indigenous thinkers, biologist Robin Wall Kimmerer speaks and writes of an animate world generous in its gifts of light, air, water, and food—a partner willing to share its secrets and teach us about collaboration and working with what we have. Indigenous understanding has led to plant medicines created with the guidance of the plants themselves. Over 50% of modern pharmaceuticals were developed directly or indirectly on these understandings, and 80% of the people on the planet still rely on herbal remedies for primary care. The reciprocal relationship of people and plants has also protected the natural world: Currently 80% of the world’s biodiversity is under the stewardship of 5% of the world’s population that is Indigenous. The wisdom of the Indigenous view of nature as sentient and communicative is being proven in labs and fields across the planet. CIA scientist Cleve Backster’s work with lie detectors showed plants reacting to the intentions of their caregivers, and “screaming” when they perceived threats to themselves or other life. Other studies detail the conversations and connections between living plants and animals through electric and magnetic fields, volatile organic compounds, scent, and song. Works by Michael Pollan and films like Fantastic Fung i, which profiles mycologist Paul Stamets, likewise detail plant communication and sharing, including through mycelia, the