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The weakening of the human connection to nature might be good for economic growth but is bad for people. A tipping point was reached in 2020 when human-made materials—such as steel, concrete and plastic—were found to weigh more than all life on Earth. Continuing to grow concrete forests rather than real ones is shortsighted. Simply being in the nearest wood has such health benefits that the Woodland Trust successfully lobbied for it to be prescribed by doctors.
Yet slipping from popular culture is the wonder and beauty of the natural world. For every three nature-related words in hit songs of the 1950s, researchers found, there was only slightly more than one 50 years later. It is not a moment too soon that teenagers will be able to take a natural history test, given that for decades children have been able to name more video game characters than wildlife species.
Part of remedying this social disease would be for parliament to pass a “right to grow” law, allowing anyone to turn underused public spaces into vegetable and fruit gardens. The idea is for people to get back in touch with the soil—while producing food sustainably.
Vegetable planting has a respectable tradition. In April 1649, locals responded to high prices and food shortages by cultivating vegetables on common land in Southern England. The practice of throwing seed bombs to turn vacant plots of land green took off in 1970s New York, and has been revived by green-thumbed (有园艺才能的) social media influencers who defy local US regulations in a war on ugly spots in cities.
Apart from the urgent task of providing more healthy nutrients to those who increasingly can’t afford them, publicly accessible fruit and vegetable gardens connect what we eat to where it comes from—the means of production, if you will. They can make unlovely spaces lovely, and marry use and beauty as well as help promote a sense of community. Plants are also, of course, our first defence against species loss and climate change. Such planting is a small step for humanity—in the right direction.