In honor of National Farmer’s Day, and my own curiosity about sustainable agriculture, I visited a small farm in Goochland where the owner, Cameron, grows various breeds of THC-free hemp flower along with some vegetables. As I drove down the narrow gravel drive, I kept thinking, “this doesn’t look like a farm.” I saw a large, rank puddle of murky water (calling it a pond would be too generous) surrounded by weeds and wildflowers I couldn’t identify. When I pulled up, the farm owner was tossing grains to a flock of honking geese as a small dog scurried around his feet.
Once Cameron pointed them out, I could see the beds of hemp plants among the natural growth. Tall stalks flush with sticky buds sprouted between clusters of wildflowers humming with the bees collecting nectar. Caterpillars nibbled at the leaves of another plant, while butterflies fluttered among the blooms. Cameron wasn’t bothered by either the weeds or the insects; instead, he told me that he welcomed them. Bees usually struggle to find food this time of year, he told me, so he’s always happy to see that the wildflowers are playing a role in sustaining them. The leaves that become too chewed up by the caterpillars will fall off and land in the soil, where they rot and provide more nutrients for the surrounding plants.
He went on to point out the different plants growing together, how each one contributed to the mineral balance of the soil where they grow and how it affected the health of his crops. The key to growing healthy plants without man-made chemicals or pesticides, he told me, was diversity.
In industrial farms, he explained, the operator may plant an orchard full of nothing but apple trees. That way, it’s more efficient for farmworkers to harvest apples quickly and in bulk. But there are a lot of species of insects that feed on those apples. And when they come to check out the orchard and find row after row of apple trees, it’s like they hit the jackpot. They infest, they stay, and they spread.
The same won’t happen with a diversity of trees in the same orchard. Plant an apple tree next to a peach tree next to a pear tree and so on, any pests attracted to one species of tree or fruit will quickly realize that they can’t spread as quickly between trees. So those pests will move on, sparing the crops without any need for the farm operator to rely on toxic pesticides.
Growing crops this way is harder, which is why industrial farms don’t do it. It requires more monitoring and care to make sure that the plants are growing in harmony. And harvesting takes more time, since the results aren’t quite as homogeneous or orderly. Why spend that extra time and effort when instead you could walk methodically down the rows and fill your basket with apples?
But growing in a way that complements nature instead of working against it, in a way that embraces diversity rather than eschews it, that recognizes the benefits of the “undesirable” elements (in this case, weeds and bugs) instead of trying to rip them out and dispose of them - that produces a better quality product.
When I left the farm nearly two hours later, I felt like I had gotten a lesson in philosophy as much as small business ownership and agriculture. I remembered people I have met on the campaign trail that said they made mistakes that led to them being uprooted and thrown in a jail cell with the same ruthlessness that a large-scale farm operator might discard an unwanted weed. I thought about the way I had envisioned a neat, orderly farm with evenly spaced rows of identical plants standing at attention, and how Cameron welcomed the wildflowers, messy as they may look, because they helped sustain the bees. Mostly, I thought about how much easier it is for people to form social groups of friends with nearly identical beliefs and life experiences, and the ways that surrounding ourselves with a diverse network prevents the spread of ignorance.
The greatest part of this campaign has been to meet people whose backgrounds are vastly different from mine, and listen to their stories. It can get awkward and messy sometimes - an offhand remark can be offensive in a way that I may never have considered. It takes more work to find common ground with someone with vastly different backgrounds and beliefs than myself. But it can also be so incredibly rewarding to follow those different threads back to shared values and bond with another person on a human level.
I can’t promise that as a candidate or as an elected official that I will always hold beliefs and make decisions that every single one of my constituents will agree with. But I see the value in diversity. I believe that bringing together people from different backgrounds and belief systems can lead some brilliant ideas to flourish and bloom. I believe that nobody should be written off or tossed aside because we can only see the worst in them - that given the right environment in which to grow, weeds can become wildflowers. And I believe that the natural cure for close-mindedness is a diverse orchard that produces a fruit salad of understanding of the human experience.
Doesn’t that sound delicious?
Caitlin Coakley is a writer, mom, and activist from Chesterfield County, Virginia, currently running to represent Virginia’s 65th District in the House of Delegates. If you think our elected leaders should embrace imperfection and diversity instead of forcing conformity on all people, support her campaign here: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/coakleyfordelegate.