The Poison Garden
The Poison Garden
https://www.alnwickgarden.com/the-garden/poison-garden/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alnwick_Garden
The Alnwick Garden is a complex of formal gardens adjacent to Alnwick Castle in the town of Alnwick, Northumberland, England. The gardens have a long history under the dukes of Northumberland, but fell into disrepair until revived at the turn of the 21st century. The garden now features various themed plantings designed around a central water cascade. The revival of the gardens led to several public disputes between the Duchess of Northumberland and various garden experts concerning preservation and the use of public funds.[1] The garden now belongs to a charitable trust, which is separate from Northumberland Estates, although the 12th Duke of Northumberland donated the 42-acre (17 ha) site and contributed £9 million towards redevelopment costs.
of course.... this is a bit tongue and cheek -
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/natural-toxins-in-food
But if you combine the WHO toxins... the metaphors is delicious!
https://youtu.be/tboW11dMeKs
Its a fun place, but it illustrates that plants really didn't evolve to be eaten. Even fruit is for specific purposes, and not all animals. Coevolution is a thing.
...so just going to ignore the fact that humans have spent thousands of years designing crops that don't kill us? Or wait, I'm sorry, is that verboten information here?
For anyone wondering if we might have evolved to be healthiest on plant based diets consider that it has only been 10 000 years since the agricultural revolution, and since then our brains are smaller, our jaws are smaller, our teeth are so crowded that many need their last teeth (wisdom teeth) removed
Archaeologists identify pre-agriculture populations by the quality of their teeth. Good teeth, no agriculture. Rotten teeth (like the modern person's, luckily we have dental treatment that ancient Egyptians would have killed for) means they had agriculture.
What did humans eat for millions of years before 8000 BCE? Animals or animals and plants.
The animal that does best on seeds (birds) lost the teeth their ancestors (raptor dinosaurs) had.
That is a good point, since the introduction of agriculture 10k years ago humanity has changed plant species for our benefit, this is absolutely true.
However, we spent 2.5m years as meat eaters, so it will take quite a while to fully adapt to a plant based diet.
I'd agree that cultivated food is better today in terms of nutrition density and harvest yield then 10,000 years ago!
The question for this community is are they optimal for health compared to other options? Probably not, at least not yet.
Considering that we've yet to properly understand most of the processes in our body, I think it's very hubristic to just think that we've "designed crops that don't kill us." The operating principle is "as far as we know," which isn't much to go by.
What's worse, the people behind these "designer crops" are purely profit-driven. Their sole motivation is the accumulation of capital above all else. They are only concerned about human health when the effects are too obvious to ignore. This is a failing of modern society, but that's a whole other discussion.
For an example, does eating modern refined flour kill us? Not immediately... So I think I'll take 2.5m years over 10,000, just to be on the safe side.
I feel like every garden is a poison garden to a greater or lesser extent. Perhaps the only safe plants are fruits, berries, and some nuts - the few plants that want to be eaten to spread their seeds
Bruh we have literally spent thousands of years engineering crops that are good for us lmao