Hidden hotspots of Biodiversity

 I of course loved the shoutout to arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) in this chapter. I am currently conducting similar research as Guzman, intending to analyze the mycorrhizal communities of the regen ag experimental field using DNA quantitative PCR. The biggest roadblock that we have run into so far is that there simply isn't enough DNA in our samples to reach the needed threshold for PCR--aka, the soil is so barren of microbial biodiversity from decades of conventional agriculture that we are struggling to even find DNA to analyze. The benefits of AMF are so widespread yet so overlooked. I am excited that fungi is having its "moment" in both the scientific community and pop culture. It deserves our love and gratitude, as human life wouldn't have been possible without them. Remember to thank your local fungi today. 

I also found the second half of the chapter very interesting. I had a long-term partner whose family was from Mexico, and their family garden was essentially a permaculture food forest. They weren't planting fruit trees, with understories of food-producing shrubs, ground cover plants, and integrating vegetables and chickens because they read it in some permaculture book or a regenerative ag specialist told them to. It was simply their common cultural practice and indigenous knowledge. What was even more interesting to me was that the mayans didn't have a word for agriculture, and the closest direct translation means "working with nature." I've said this multiple posts in a row, but the West isn't "discovering" anything. Working with nature seems so novel and revolutionary, but it has been indigenous practice for thousands of years. Farms in central/south America are thought of as crop communities, and monocropping is almost unthinkable. 

I had heard of NAFTA before, but it was shocking to me just how destructive it was to the Mexican economy and traditional agricultural practices. I wonder how we go about remedying this with such extensive damage?