The Botany of Desire Page #13

With a spray form of bt.

But now that bt

has been engineered

Into crops, exposing insects

day in and day out,

Tabashnik has found

that the bugs

Are more likely

to develop resistance.

In the decades of use

Of bt sprays, there's only one

insect that evolved resistance.

On the other hand, after about

a dozen years of bt crops,

We already have three examples

Of insects that have evolved

resistance.

But tabashnik still thinks

Genetically engineered crops

Do more to help the environment

than to harm it.

I think that

ultimately

You can't be absolutely sure

that no harm will come,

But when you're using bt crops,

The benefits are

reduced insecticide use.

The risks are much more

difficult to quantify

And much more uncertain.

In my own mind,

it seems like it makes sense

That we could go to more

genetically modified

Type plants.

That would allow us not to apply

these chemicals on the plants,

And they would have a natural

resistance to these insects.

It seems like the logical way

to go for me,

And I assume someday

it will go there.

But for food crops

like the potato,

Genetic engineering

and chemical pesticides

Are not the only choices.

You know, as long as

you're growing monocultures,

You sort of

have to choose between

Lots of pesticides

to keep them going,

Or genetically modified crops

to keep them going.

But if you're willing

to abandon monoculture,

There are other ways

to do it.

Mike heath,

who grows potatoes in idaho

Just 60 miles from the cranneys,

Is an organic farmer.

In a conventional system,

You're trying to control.

You're trying to control nature.

We're trying

to work with it as best we can.

While his neighbors

devote most of their acreage

To the russet burbank,

heath is

More of an equal-opportunity

grower.

We have 16 varieties

altogether this year.

So we're pretty diversified.

As far as I'm concerned,

That's our main strength,

is our diversification.

Heath grows

norkotahs,

Red norlands,

all blues, and elbas.

By planting lots

of different varieties

And controlling pests with

natural enemies like ladybugs,

He farms without using

toxic chemicals.

The conventional farmers

certainly

Know how to farm with chemicals.

I -- I myself, if I had to go

back to that,

I'd -- I would quit.

Heath's labor costs

are high.

He doesn't cultivate

as many acres

Or grow as much food

as the cranneys.

But since he spends

next to nothing on pesticides

And gets good prices

for his organic potatoes

In specialty markets,

He usually earns

more money per acre.

I used to be really

pretty stupid,

You know, as far as my neighbors

were concerned, pretty silly.

But I have

a lot more respect now

Than I did 10, 15 years ago.

They can see that I'm

still in business,

And we've got good markets,

And we grow a good product,

And I'm proud to be

an organic farmer.

You know, there are

other ways to skin a cat.

And farmers are figuring it out.

And they're figuring out

How to grow food

without pesticides,

And the key -- the key insight

that you find

In all the creative farmers

who have solved this problem

Is getting away

from monoculture.

The answer to the problems

of monoculture

Is not new technologies,

it's not band-aids.

It's getting away

from monoculture.

I think

if we could learn

From the peruvians,

if we could step back

And appreciate the diversity

that they've given us

In the potato

And take advantage of it

in our agriculture,

That is the way forward.

I think

some of the methods

They've developed in peru

to use genetic diversity

By planting a whole range

of varieties within one field

Is a very good strategy,

But I just don't see

how we readily adapt that

To a production system

that not only

Has to feed people

in the u.S.,

But feed a worldwide population

With a product

that's a certain quality.

The order

we impose on nature

Is never more than temporary

or illusory.

In the end, the logic of nature

will win out

Over the logic of capitalism,

the logic of the factory,

The logic of efficiency.

It's always been so

and it always will be so.

Nature is stronger

than any of our designs.

And nature resists

our control.

For me,

the most important lessons

To take away from these tales

is that we are not simply

Standing outside

the web of life,

But that we are part

of that web of life

And that everything we do --

What we choose to eat,

What flowers we choose

to put on our tables,

What drugs we choose

to take --

These are evolutionary votes

We are casting every day

in many, many different ways.

When we use these metaphors

and we talk

About plants having a strategy

to do this

Or wanting this

or desiring this,

We're being metaphorical,

obviously.

I mean, plants

do not have consciousness.

But this is a fault

of our own vocabulary.

We don't have a very good

vocabulary to describe

What other species do to us --

because we think we're

The only species that really

does anything.

But to the extent

that you can put yourself

In the place

of these other species

And look at the world

from their point of view,

I think it frees us from our

sense of alienation from nature,

And we become members

of the biotic community,

One among many species,

all of them together

Creating this wondrous web

that we call life.

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