TED talks discussion

We as humans tend to think of ourselves as superior inhabitants of our planet,  but what if we are all just a part of the plants' plan for world domination?  In the TED talks video "A Plant's-Eye View" author Michael Pollan raises a very similar question.  In this video Mr. Pollan tells the viewer and his audience about an epiphany that came to him after observing a bumblebee pollinating an apple tree one afternoon near his garden.  This epiphany was while he and the bumblebee both probably thought they were "calling the shots" as to which plants got to reproduce and which did not, in reality, neither of them were.  He makes the point that there was a reason that he chose that potato to plant.  There was a reason the bee chose that tree to pollinate.  Whether it was the certain color, shape, or size of the plant being helped to reproduce, it had evolved these traits to make it more desirable.  

Mr. Pollan also gives his audience an example of a farm he visited in Virginia.  On this farm the owner raised cattle, sheep, and chickens among other animals, but if you asked the farmer what he was he would reply “a grass farmer”.  Grass was the basis of his whole business.  The process this man used was slightly complex, but proved that we as people do not have to destroy the land to get food in return.  He would have the cattle graze a certain patch of land for a set amount of time, then he would move them and after three days, he would bring in the chickens.  As the chickens were let loose in the field, they would search through the cow manure for the grubs that would be hatching there.  While searching through the manure for food, the chickens were spreading it and in turn making their own feces, thus fertilizing the grass.  After a few weeks, the grass would grow tremendously and the farmer would start the process over again by either bringing in another species he raised on his farm, or by making hay for the winter.  From this process, the farmer would produce 40-thousand pounds of beef, 30-thousand pounds of pork, 25-thousand dozen eggs, one-thousand turkeys, one-thousand rabbits all on only one-hundred acres of land.  He does not destroy the land, but rather gives every organism what it wants and needs to survive.  The animals are provided with food and the plants receive nutrients from the animals’ waste.  

If we do not think about such matters as food from the perspective of the plants themselves, how can we truly appreciate some of the very organisms that give us life?

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