Many people
feel worried about the future of our planet and for reasons that are more valid
than they may realize but feel powerless about. The reason for the demise of
life as evolution brought forth is us, humankind. The solution is not us. We
are not even to blame, nothing is. It’s just as it is, how things evolved along
a path that can be logically explained. We, fruitarkists, are among the ones
that realize what is happening and what is coming. Even our own near
term extinction in say a couple of decades from now, if we believe the
latest science briefings from professor Guy McPherson, because of runaway
climate change will not soften the blow of our created consequences on the
global environment as we set things in motion that our disappearance will not
stop. The realization of this fact may lead to amongst other things despair,
indifference or action. Possible common actions like installing solar power on
roof tops, buying a hybrid car, promoting thorium reactors, voting green, starting
a vegetable garden or sterilization are actions that will not change the
current course the slightest bit or even just continue it at the same speed.
The most disruptive action that we can come up with is to start to eat copious
amounts of fruit! And we do this without even having the hubris to think that it
will save ourselves or anything. Nevertheless it is the most disruptive (retro)
‘technology’ or action that we can come up with. We must be silly, right? How
about discovering more but infinite amounts of cheap energy instead for
instance? Well, stuffing your face with fruit comes sort of close. Not just because
of the deliciously sweet sugars but because it would change everything! Yes,
everything. How is that possible you wonder?
Sunlight
makes life on this planet possible and abundant. Our bodies are made of atoms
from suns and we need the energy of the sun every single day. Without the sun,
no life on planet earth. Simple as that. Of course there needs to be water and
all the other ingredients but without its daily dose of solar energy life here
stops instantly. The rays of sunlight are converted by plant life into a
different kind of energy than light: roots, leaves, wood, flowers, fruits and
seeds (usually in that sequence). Truly a process that doesn’t get the respect
from us that it deserves. Few of us think highly of plants and trees. Because
we think we are smarter while actually we are or act rather stupid ourselves.
That’s why. We are not insane
like writer Derrick Jensen likes to claim in his premise 10 of his book Endgame,
although destroying your environment may seem so yes. We are not completely
stupid either also. Humans started out by eating plant foods, the occasional insect
and that was probably it. But along the linear timeline we stumbled upon easier
ways to get the energy from the sun than via plants. And like anything else on
the planet when it is easier we tend to stick to it as long as we can. More oil
(actually ancient
sunlight), anyone? Important evolutionary novelties like speech, organization
and tool making brought us in the predicament where we are today. From the
first cutting tools to the neutron bomb, of which we decided it was one step
too far, we discovered our possible amazing powers that we could yield over the
entire planet to get things easier, for us. Save me your natives and noble
savages idealizations, there are animals and plants that are long time extinct
because they met their tool and organizational skills, appetite did the rest.
We will admit that they had and have less impact than we have today but they
were no angels either. Why? Because like any other organism on the planet they
won’t turn down an opportunity for an easy meal. Food is energy and along the
slippery historic path we became less and less picky in what package it comes,
curious beings as we are. Roasted human enemy meat, anyone? This culminated
into the primary source to still our personal hunger today: supermarkets available
in all sizes and shapes. As long as you have money, not something evil in
itself but a derivative of energy, you don’t have to chase a herd of herbivores
of a cliff, wait patiently for a fish to take your bait or plow a clayey field.
You go in and grab what you want, pay, done. Now if money itself came just easy
as well we would all be in heaven, right?
But that is not the reality. Humans do about
everything you can think of to gather money or fill shopping malls, including
basically enslaving or even killing each other. This problematic behavior is
not limited to other humans but everything else that lives or doesn’t as well. Sure
nature itself can be violent. We are part of nature so we have some violence in
us, someone came even up with the human killer ape theory. But
we have created an ultra-violent culture called civilization that has no match
and is no match for nature itself. Many words have been and will be written
about civilization. The start of agriculture is seen as the basis for
civilization coming to the front about thirteen or so thousand years ago. Despite
its many challenges ultimately agriculture seemed easier for the hunter
gatherers that decided to abandon their old lifestyle in favor of this new one.
To many this change was a defining and radical change in the evolution of
mankind. And we, fruitarkists, like to think so as well. From a life in closely
tied, egalitarian, small bands, without property to speak of, wandering in a
world with only natural borders - towards a life in megacities, dysfunctional
families, chasing property/money, stuck in one place in an authoritarian
society that is ultra-violent. For those who don’t see the violence, try to not
pay your bills for a while, as a small example. Yet this culture that has its
roots deeply in agriculture has conquered virtually every nook and cranny on
the planet, destroyed every other form of human lifestyle during its rise. And
now we are stuck with it, or so it seems, to our very, maybe sooner than we
think, end. As soon as you start agriculture, you start war with nature. It
forces you to protect something in one place that you say is yours while the
rest around you sees it as ‘for all’. Ownership of land leads to the property
of things, animals, plants and people. Protecting or acquiring property comes
with violence and men are better at being violent than women. Putting all your
interest in one place is separation from the rest. Separation from nature has
lead to the unbridled exploitation and pollution of all natural resources
worldwide. A practice that is simply unsustainable. So agriculture and
civilization are problematic for itself and the rest of the planet. However
this dominant culture seems to have the upper hand in a game of hand wrestling
with Mother Earth. A game that ultimately can’t be won because nature has more time
and patience than humankind and of course we simply can’t live without her, no
matter how much we pretend we can. This situation has two outcomes. Either it
wins from Mother Earth (and thus loses by ecological collapse) or it is won
over by a different but easier lifestyle. Regrettably though it seems close to ‘winning’
the hand wrestling game or actually already ‘won’.
So back to why
eating fruit can be disruptive. We can’t return to a traditional hunter-gather
lifestyle, it is simply impossible because of several obvious reasons. For
starters there is hardly any suitable environment to live from and on. The
fossil energy fueled, mono cultural,
agriculture’s violent and destructive grip on the planet can only be countered in
a logical, easy, stealthy, peaceful and smart way. Humans can live the most
healthy life on a vegan diet. This diet should come mainly from trees (even no
need to obsess about tofu) grown as horticultural mini nomadic forest gardens
where you hop from tree to tree, plant to plant during the year. Agriculture is
based on grasses and annuals. That is why fruitarkism calls the current culture
the culture of grass worshippers. Grain (annuals), meat and dairy are their main
foods. The tree huggers on the other hand should consider their main foods
fruits, leaves (vegetables) and seeds (nuts). By eating fruits, sowing its
seeds and planting trees tree huggers could return humans to its original role
in nature in the form of seed dispersal. Grass worshippers have turned the
world into deserts and lawns with devastating effects. Nature can miss this unique
desert creating species like a headache. Embracing our original function in
nature is the only way to break down agriculture. Not by attacking it openly
but just by simply starting to eat differently because it needs your money to
continue. More money every year, so if you stop eating their products they can’t
grow and eventually die. As they die more land will come available to plant
trees on. To bring back the once cut tree cover is what the world needs to
counter climate change, provide habitat, gather food from and restore
ecological balance amongst other positive things and not to forget health, sanity
and peace. We start to plant edible habitats (containing trees with and without
edible fruits) on owned land and in public space wherever permitted or allowed
in a smart and well thought manner starting today! We must depend on it so we
really care for it and defend it when we have to. Can there be an action so
simple for your present and future as this? Of course it is and it isn’t. But sow
a seed into the soil, sow an idea into the minds today. Color the planet. Grow,
eat, live fruits!
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| Photo by Doug Fruitarky |
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