Parable of the Hill People, in Landrace Gardening, by Joseph Lofthouse

People have known the basic facts about plant breeding for eons. Plants make seeds, which can be collected and replanted. Offspring resemble their parents and grandparents. With that foundation of knowledge, illiterate plant breeders domesticated the food species that we now grow.

Over tens of thousands of years, illiterate humans selected for plants and animals that were useful for food. They selected against poisons and excessive fibrousness. They selected for productivity, and for resistance to bugs and disease. They selected for great flavors and high nutritional content.

During that time, humans and plants entered into agreements with each other. The plants agreed to produce abundantly and to give up their poisons, thorns, and anti-nutrients. The humans agreed to care for, nurture, and protect the plants. Together, the plants and the humans entered into mutually beneficial symbiotic relationships.

In addition to the obviously observed symbiotic relationships, unseen symbiotic relationships also developed with the microbes that lived inside, and nearby, the people and the plants.

Some plants and some human cultures took the symbiosis to the next level. Humans became sedentary, and started staying near the grains to better protect them from predators and competition from weeds. The abundance of food allowed humans to spend more time on cultural pursuits, and less time on day to day survival.

The humans separated into civilized people who lived in cities near the grains, and hill people who lived more as nomads, or hunter gatherers. The hill people also domesticated plants. They tended to practice perennial horticulture instead of annual agriculture. The civilized people discovered that they could store grains for months, years, or decades. They gathered the grains into storehouses for safekeeping, and appointed strong men to guard the grain. Then, since the strong men had control of the grain, they demanded obeisance in exchange for food, sending out deputies to make sure that all the grain produced by the civilized folks ended up in the centralized granaries, and not in private pantries.

The hill people continued to live in their traditional ways, growing perishable foods that were not easily centralized or shipped. Growing small gardens that were not worth a bureaucrat's time. Foraging in the wildlands for foods that were not readily counted. Keeping mobile herds and flocks. Growing perennial crops that can go years between harvests, or annual crops that can fend for themselves.

The civilized folks industrialized their food production system, sending hoards of robots into the fields and warehouses, with just enough low-paid workers to keep the robots operational. They spewed poisons into the air, land, water, and themselves. The living soil turned into dead dirt, and the rivers and oceans into dead zones. The industrialization of the food system decimated the microbes, fungi, and endophytes that the plants required for proper growth. The crops grown by the civilized folks became imbeciles due to intense inbreeding. They lost the intelligence for dealing with environmental stress. Mechanization and overuse of crop protection chemicals, sprays, and fertilizers made the plants dependent on the robots, furthering the forgetfulness. The civilized plants grew poorly when planted in more natural gardens. The civilized people also became dependent on the robots for their food. They came to obey anything that the strong men told them to do, so that they could continue to eat. The civilized people became hard, like the machines that fed them. Fear, mistrust, and despair filled their cities. They forgot how to sing and dance, preferring to watch other people sing and dance as shown to them by the robots.

The animals and crops grown by the hill people retained their genetic memory about how to deal with bugs, diseases, farmers, soils, and ecosystems. The people, and their plants, maintained healthy relationships with the weeds, animals, microbes, fungi, and endophytes. The intelligent, diverse crops grown by the hill people produced a rich abundance of healthy food, offering peace and freedom to the hill people.

The hill people frequently celebrated their good fortune, and the wisdom of their plant and human ancestors. They gathered together for singing, dancing and giving thanks for the beautiful flavors, robust plants, natural world, and their communities. Their music and dance was spontaneous, made with their own bodies, imaginations, and instruments. Joy, peace, and cooperation filled their villages.