Caspar Henderson

The North American fruit tree that provides a model for economics

Bound in a web of connectivity, the serviceberry produces sufficient food for humans and other animals, and is an outstanding example of wealth consisting in ‘having enough to share’

The Saskatoon serviceberry, Amelanchier alnifolia. [Alamy] 
issue 30 November 2024

Life on Earth is not a zero-sum affair. Most plants only exist thanks to partnerships with fungal filaments in the soil which mobilise essential nutrients for them and receive sugars made from sunlight in exchange. Without those partnerships, humans and most other land animals which depend on plants either directly or at one or two removes would not exist.

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