Sofia Perez
Chapter 2 of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring begins like this: “The history of life on earth has been a history of interaction between living things and their surroundings.” By asserting this fact, she is also asserting an often-overlooked reality: connection. This means that the myth of the world being divided between humankind and nature is false. In reality, humankind exists within nature.
“The history of life on earth has been a history of interaction between living things and their surroundings.”
Rachel Carson, “Silent Spring”
At the end of the chapter’s first paragraph, Carson drops in another observation: “Only within the moment of time represented by the present century has one species… acquired significant power to alter the nature of his world.” Truth be told, humankind does have significant power. We have wiped out species, altered the structure of ecosystems, and developed fertilizers and pesticides that increase the scale of farming. On the flipside, we have also advanced our scientific understanding of climate, innovated new ways of harnessing energy, and increased our awareness of how nutrition, agriculture, and climate are related.
Yet the notion of ‘having power’ is mostly an illusion, and in such a spirit, let’s stop to ask ourselves what this ‘power’ really is. The 17th century philosopher Thomas Hobbes analyzed it in his 1660 work Leviathan, in which he defined power as the means to “obtain some future apparent good”. Instead of equating the accumulation of power with a sense of certainty, as Carson does, Hobbes asserts that the greatest power is the power of human connection.
Let’s dive into this concept a bit deeper by looking at the link between humanity and agriculture. Imagine yourself in such a position, wedged between the will of the temperamental weather and the obligation to produce a harvest. You squint out hazily into a vast field of green crops or perhaps into a dense tangle of trees. Many things cross your mind, such as the rain, the soil, the sun, the animals. You balance it all in your head with a stealthy calculation that only comes from years of experience. There are risks, there are rewards, and some days there are only hours of hard work before you lie down to sleep at night. Control is illusive, but experience and generations of wisdom tell you how to predict the inherent unpredictability of the world around you.
“Control is illusive, but experience and generations of wisdom will tell you how to predict the inherent unpredictability of the world around you.”
This lack of control has only recently been challenged by the advent of chemical fertilizers and monocultures, which place a thin veil of denial over the underlying fragility of our place in the ecosystem. The dangers behind our relatively modern “efficient” agriculture have been highlighted extensively. Even so, there is still a sense of mystery surrounding each plate consumed. It’s as though we have a long-distance relationship with every meal, held together by patchy wifi and trust. Do we know what we eat? Kind of, but it takes a lot of effort to keep the relationship alive.
So is this power? Not to Hobbes. True power, in this case, is removed when connection disappears. It is then replaced with a false sense of control that lives in the hands of an elite minority.
“True power, in this case, is removed when connection disappears. It is then replaced with a false sense of control…”
Now let’s put it all together: To have power over ourselves is to have power over our health. To have power over health depends on power over food. Go another step and power over food is achieved by having power over agriculture. Power over agriculture translates to yet another connection: the connection to life.
But how does this ancient tie of mankind to the earth become rekindled? This is, after all, the tie that has led to the establishment of permanent settlements, complex social systems, and eventually, modern day society. Yes, when homo sapiens learned to harness a connection to their food and environment, innovation kicked off in a revolutionary way.
This is when knowledge about biodiversity and soil fertility come into the discussion about food. Soil organisms are responsible for extremely important services, such as nutrient cycling, regulating the dynamics of soil organic matter, carbon sequestration, filtration, generating & regulating soil fertility, etc. This is all important because the food we eat ultimately comes from the soil. So if it is in poor health, it creates a product that is less nutritious.
So let’s pause for a minute. If power over food is the goal, and agriculture sits at the base of all global food systems, how do we improve agriculture? If we can agree that integrating an understanding of biodiversity and soil health is the general solution, how do we integrate such an understanding? While there are ample responses to this issue, let’s analyze the problem by using one of the most basic tools we have at our disposal: language.
Language forms the building blocks of identity and the lens through which people see the world. Inevitably this has shaped agriculture, cultivating an attachment to the earth via the words used to tell its story. This in turn gives us a tool to reclaim wisdom by reviving dying languages. By reclaiming wisdom related to agriculture, we are approaching pressing modern issues with techniques that have already been used successfully over several generations in the past.
So could it be that language and land have more ties than we realize? Consider it for a moment: Here I am, telling you a story with only my words, which can appear on the screen of anyone with a connection to the internet. You don’t have to know me, but my message can still reach you. But let’s take a step back. Even before the internet, even before the written word, we are a species tethered to time by stories. We use stories to make sense of our past, to make sense of truth, love, mortality. We even use stories to understand ourselves. As a way of accessing these stories, languages all across the globe act as the keys to truth. If we lose language, don’t we also lose wisdom?
“We use stories to make sense of our past, to make sense of truth, love, mortality. We even use stories to understand ourselves…If we lose language, don’t we also lose wisdom?”
The question has been debated within academia, with some clinging to the linguistic relativity thesis developed by anthropologists Eric Sapir and Benjamin Whorf, which would answer this question with a resounding ‘yes’. Yet this transcends the abstract realm of academic philosophy. When it comes to agriculture, food, and the missing link between modern society and nature, it is incredibly important. The ancient relationship of humankind with the greater sphere of planetary forces is kindled by ancestral ties to farming, fishing, and hunting that go back a long way. We are connected to the world around us through history, identity, and survival. Language is a way not only to tell our own story, but a way to tell the story of the world around us. The question now is: can it tell us the story of society regaining power over food?
Thought to Action:
- Share this article with at least 3 people
- Contact your local Congressperson/MP to express concern for current agricultural practices that lead to food insecurity
- Learn more about other languages and cultures via language-learning apps like FirstVoices Keyboard, Memrise, & Duolingo, particularly languages which face extinction (e.g. K’iche’, Yucatec, Xhosa, Haitian Creole, Zulu)
- Support local agricultural efforts by:
- Attending farmers’ markets
- Dining at farm-to-table restaurants & cafes
- Buying “ugly” produce
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