Unfortunately, the “fixation on just one crop,” says Kristof, means that traditional varieties of foods are going extinct—crops that are already adapted to drought and heat, traits that become especially important as agriculture copes with climate change.

As Kristof Nordin explains in the video, Malawi has over six hundred indigenous plants that could provide food, clothing and fuel. Why do they need a non native crop requiring chemical fertilizers instead? There are many reasons I suppose, but it does bring up a point about how local crops or plants best serve the local area and the environment in general .

It's a shame that the local crops have a stigma attached to them also.

Stacia and Kristof use their home as a way to educate their neighbors about both permaculture and indigenous vegetables. Most Malawians think of traditional foods, such as amaranth and African eggplant, as poor people foods grown by “bad” farmers. But these crops may hold the key for solving hunger, malnutrition and poverty in Malawi.

Removing a stigma is a big challenge. It is possible. It takes leadership and patience to do so. Evidently Stacia and Kristof understand this, and are committed to doing so.

I think this is a strong case for growing native species in general. Mother Nature know what she's doing. The reasons plants are native to specific areas is because that's where they belong. I know that sounds simple and obvious, but it's true. Why do humans feel it's ok to extensively modify the environment to suit their whims? Grass in the dessert for subdivision lawns and golf courses?



There are many plants that people could grow in their region which face extinction. They just have to be sought out with a little research or the help of a master gardener. In the state of NJ I know I can call the local agricultural cooperative and get the information I need about native plants. You local nursery should be able to provide that same information.



There are seed exchanges, the Slow Foods Arc of Taste, USA and International, and there is the Google. There's lots of stories to be told about why the plants are native to an area, and some have lore and tales attached to them as well. In the encouragement to look at life as a collection of stories, and for you to become the storyteller of your life, this is another example of doing that. Do some digging both in research and the earth, and be proud to tell the story of the area you live in through native plants. After all plants play a quiet, yet very strategic role in the story of life. They provide the necessary elements of oxygen, nutrition, healing and shelter.

