This chapter of the book discusses plants, which includes weeds, that are both native and foreign in North America – more specifically, in New York. However, I found the author taking bipolar points of view regarding this topic. She talks about how Europeans introduced all the foreign plants, some with intention and some without. This led to an outbreak in the foreign plant population, which mostly destroyed and overtook the environments of the native plants. Then she goes on discussing how people are trying to preserve the “natural” habitats of these plants, but mentions that caring too much for them can be devastating (for example, she states that constantly treating the soil against weeds tends to result in more weeds because the chemical treatments destroy the composition of soil and make it uninhabitable for regular plants. This, however, isn’t necessarily true because people who buy those large sacs of grass are actually buying genetically modified seeds that are able to resist weed-treatment chemicals, but I digress.)
I think what is worth mentioning is the point she makes about the negative outlook people have on weeds. My parents go slightly insane with our backyard, making sure it’s the most perfect garden anyone has ever seen, so naturally having weeds is not an option. I don’t think that they know that weeds were once used by people for both food and medicinal purposes (I don’t think that a majority of people even know this because we are primed to think that weeds are a no-no and need to be destroyed). Additionally, because we are so used to having medicine available at hand in pharmacies, we don’t think about where they even came from (obviously in the sense that how they were made, beyond the laboratory — from plants).
Lastly, I would like bring up the point the author makes regarding Europeans exploiting land for personal use. Though I agree that over-exploitation is horrible, and the environment is being ruined, but at the same time, the human population is growing. We need more room to expand, we need more land to plant crops and feed people, and how else are we to do it without going into other habitats. It is important to try to adapt our needs to best fit the environment, but it’s not fair to just say “humans are destroying everything in their path.”
