Sandy Seed Library - November 2026

 

Happy November, Gardeners! Back in July we had a master gardener, Eric Butler, come and present: Native Plants in an Alien World. It was a fantastic presentation and as I sat to reflect on it, I found that I wanted to know more about a particular slide regarding food forests and permaculture. Permaculture is something that I have read up on and even shared in this newsletter but I learned that "food forest" is a more general and inclusive term. Within that slide Eric touched on respecting cultural traditions and asking permission when in doubt. I asked him to expand on that:

A lot of traditional knowledge about plants is very important to particular cultures, and sometimes isn't meant to be widely shared. Even when this information is public, there can be really harmful consequences to taking that knowledge and using it in ways that don't respect its origins. A good example: many North American Indigenous cultures consider corn to be an ancestor—literally a living relative whose existence is a vital part of human life. But corn has been taken away, turned into a commodity, treated with chemicals and heavy machinery, genetically engineered, patented, and sold in bulk for livestock feed and processed extracts—and all the cheap industrial corn on the market makes it nearly impossible for traditional corn farmers to make a living anymore. If you believe that corn is part of your own family, this is deeply painful. This hasn't happened (yet) with local food plants like camas, but the possibility is there, and this means we have a responsibility to respect these plants and their cultural importance.

Since permaculture/food forestry relies on sustainability practices, it often borrows from indigenous cultural practices, Eric is asking us to be mindful when making those choices.