Each month the owners of Keap reflect on the theme of our Ignite Story, and consider what the topics mean for us as individuals and business owners.
Back in January, we chose to write about plant pandemics as part of our Ignite Series stories. It wasn’t surprising to discover that the mass-cultivation of citrus fruits has made them prone to system collapse. From mono-crops presenting rapid transmission between plants, to globalization giving potential diseases the opportunity to spread far and wide: it is all too clear how systems that ignore the natural world eventually have to deal with the consequences of ignoring reality. And that’s just in citrus farming!
Little did we know at the time that the same threats facing plants would soon become the context of our human world.
I half wondered if it was insensitive for us to still publish our piece about plant pandemics, when we’re all dealing with a pandemic of our own.
Near where I live in New York, the silent streets of New York were still celebrating spring last month, and giving me reason to remember that nature is just doing its thing (as always).
Yet I firmly believe that if we’re to take anything from this pandemic, then we have to face it fully, accept responsibility as a species, and learn from it. We have to understand its root causes, and see what changes can be made in the future to ensure we are working in sync with nature, rather than against nature.
If we zoom out, the lesson from the last few months is that we are all interconnected. We cannot escape the consequences of living in a singular, planetary ecosystem that is at full capacity. We need to move beyond the idea of compartmentalizing problems by country, and work to tackle the conundrums facing our planet, and our species, together.
There is a lot of potential in these lessons, even if they are being imposed on us. Where our society was drifting towards ever more isolation and disconnection, this pandemic has made painfully clear the essence of the profound connection we have to each other.
Perhaps this is the moment our global consciousness shifts to a broader understanding of who we are and what we care about: one that encapsulates all life, and points the way toward a more unified and hopeful future.
With hope,
