Chapter 3

     This chapter taught me something new about migrants bringing seeds with them. It sounds obvious that one would do that if they were part of a farm and are moving to a new country or area., but it just never grazed my mind that a lot of the migrant farm workers in the United States likely tend to their own gardens when not working for a monoculture. Put yourself in the boots of someone who works for an agricultural system that ultimately forced them to move and work for them, that they know is flawed, inefficient, and unsustainable, and all at the same time tending to their own, more efficient garden, and are given zero say into how to improve the monoculture they work for. I would imagine it is painstakingly frustrating at least. A lot of our countries farms are literally covered in workers who could be doing more for the land than their bosses, and really policy, allows. The pieces almost could not be more in place to really start turning things around. Obviously farm owners and policy makers must know this. Are they afraid to let it happen because they aren't sure who would profit most from it?

    Those smaller farms, mostly undocumented and led by immigrants, were said to have more biodiversity, and more crops on a smaller land area. It is hard to know if their systems could be deployed at such a scale to feed the world, but we do know that they produce enough for themselves, on a smaller plot, with no soil degradation methods, and no artificial fertilizers. What other agricultural techniques could possibly be worth more to look into and experiment on ways to increase the scale of than these already proven ones? The way things seem to be going point to nature's natural methods of pest control and nutrient supply as already both the most efficient and sustainable ways to do so. Adding pieces to its equation have almost always resulted in more negatives than positives when treated as status quo as compared to only rearranging its pieces.