The annual Bioneers conference took place in California this past weekend, beaming live via the Internet to 23 cities across the US with 40,000 viewers. I was among a group in Montpelier, listening to a diverse group of passionate speakers who balanced traditional knowledge with science, looking deep into the heart of living systems to understand how nature operates. There was an overall theme to mimic “nature’s operating instructions” and to observe the bio mimicry of ecological design to inspire technology to serve human ends without harming the web of life.
It is possible to create conditions that are conducive to life, if we follow nature’s genius. “The Elders want us to succeed” said scientist Dayna Baumeister, and offered these three steps:
- Reawaken Curiosity and re-connect to our sense of wonder.
- Embrace Wisdom and share what we discover.
- Reconnect to our own humanity. Bring back the wayward ones and show them how beautiful the planet is.
Gardeners are naturally connected to the cycles of the earth, observant of the biomimicry that is in plants and all life, and our values reflect common environmental themes. But it is not enough to plant our own gardens. It is time that we reach out to teach others how to grow food, nurture soil, and pay attention to how all of our actions affect the future of the world. It is time to give back to the land instead of taking from it. As gardeners, we are in partnership with the natural world and caretakers of place.
“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” – Einstein
