Our young food forest is medicine in several ways.
MEDICINE IN A CONVENTIONAL SENSE
It’s medicine in a conventional sense in that it has many medicinal plants. Most of these are edible and also have medicinal properties, many of which are supported by modern science.
Local, organic, and fresh whole food grown in rich soil is medicine. This is the real medicine.
MEDICINE FOR US
It’s medicine for us. We love being here. It’s amazing to wake up to birdsong. It’s amazing to see all the diversity here and all the flowers and insects.
I feel healed by this food forest, the land here, and the regeneration project.
It heals me as much as it heals the land.
MEDICINE FOR THE LAND
It’s medicine for the land.
In the wilderness zone, the regeneration is with all native plants and a certain amount of food-producing plants. Closer to the house, it’s a mix of natives and non-invasive non-natives.
In either case, it helps build soil, create a natural layer of mulch, increase diversity, and make the ecosystem here more healthy, rich, and vibrant.
MEDICINE FOR OUR CIVILIZATION
It’s medicine for our civilization. We have an ecocidal and suicidal civilization built on the idea of separation from nature, nature as primarily a resource for us, and nature as infinite1. It’s an extractive and power-over mindset that came with agriculture and wealth inequality. It’s a mindset that has led to our chemical-dependent monoculture way of growing food that creates ecological deserts, poisons life, and depletes the soil. It’s also a zero-sum mindset where we look for solutions that gain us and not necessarily anyone else.
Food forests are very different. They are diverse. They mimic a natural healthy ecosystem. They provide habitat and food for wildlife. They produce a wide range of valuable products for us, the wildlife, and the ecosystem. They get better as they mature. The return on investment increases and builds on itself over time. They reflect a more ecological and life-centered mindset. They are an example of a win-win-win orientation. Nature wins, wildlife wins, we win, society wins, our civilization wins, future generations win.
FOOD FORESTS ARE MEDICINE
So food forests are medicine in many different ways.
Already, our very young food forest is medicine, and we will hopefully be more so as it continues to grow and mature.
There are many similar types of medicines in the world today, of course, in all areas of life.
NOTES
(1) We are separate from nature. Nature is here primarily as a resource for us. Nature has value only by its value to us. Nature is infinite. The sacred is not here, it’s out there somewhere in the sky with a sky god. We understand something by seeing it in isolation and taking it apart to its smallest components. One end of each imagined polarity is good and the other is bad. Thoughts can tell us something real and true about reality. Non-human beings don’t have rights or the same value or inner life as us. The divine speaks to us through priests. If you are at the bottom of a hierarchy, it’s your fault – through karma, lack of character, or similar.