#60: The Honorable Harvest.

The Honorable Harvest. I first learned of this ancient practice of indigenous people of North America (and likely most places in the world) from Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of the book Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants. She describes it as a “canon of indigenous principles that govern the exchange of life for life” where the relationship between people and the Earth is concerned.

It is not written, but goes like this:

Ask permission of the ones whose lives you seek. Abide by the answer.
Never take the first. Never take the last.
Harvest in a way that minimizes harm.
Take only what you need and leave some for others.
Use everything that you take.
Take only that which is given to you.
Share it, as the Earth has shared with you.
Be grateful.
Reciprocate the gift.
Sustain the ones who sustain you, and the Earth will last forever.

The thesis question: how can we apply these principles of nature to the constructs of a market economy?

It may feel like living wild on the margins but that’s where things get interesting.

“Reciprocity is an investment in abundance.”

- Robin Wall Kimmerer