Indigenous knowledge

"This... is what farming looked like when it wasn't wage work for an oppressed few but an entire community's way of life." Just before reading this page, I made a note that we could have such a happy and balanced society if it weren't for capitalism. Carlisle was illustrating the scene when Aidee Guzman visited her family farm in Mexico and was dreading harvest season, as she was used to what her parents experienced in the United States on large agribusiness monoculture farms. She was delighted by the party-like atmosphere harvesting from your own garden with the people closest to you. A general theme I am picking up from this book is the ways in which the white man has systemically destroyed cultures and then attempts to rebrand it for themselves. First with the Native Americans, then black slaves, and now with our neighbors in modern day Mexico. Through extreme political and economic corruption, we have made Mexico reliant on our corn and other commodities, while making it impossible for them to regeneratively farm on their own anymore, AND not permitting citizenship. We come at them from all angles, and then further demonize them for being "illegal criminals", when we are the ones forcing them out of their livelihood to work on our land for slave wages. The United States runs as a giant, corrupt corporation thinking only in short term, selfish gain. And come to think of it, the United States government greatly resembles the agribusiness commodities it is in the pockets of, all the same and no diversity. I think it's important to credit sustainable farming practices to those who truly invented them. Modern science can sometimes make a groundbreaking "discovery", but when the indigenous people try to speak up and say "Yeah, we've been doing that for literally thousands of years..", they are pushed aside to allow the light to shine on, typically, the white scientist. Many opportunities for science are only available for financially well-off white people, and due to various socioeconomic factors and prejudices, it's very hard for people of color to break into science, let alone be taken seriously, which perpetuates this white savior complex from developing. Science and research has a tendency to be quite pretentious and I understand the irony of that coming from a white science student, but I think for efficient advancement towards a just and sustainable society, we need to listen to indigenous wisdom regarding the Earth. We all deserve to have a party in the garden with our loved ones, free from the shackles of an oppressive oligarchy.