- Capitalism and Alternatives -
Buen monte y mal monte
Posted by: Samuel Day Fassbinder ( Pomona Valley Greens, Oink ) on October 24, 1997 at 19:26:37:
In Reply to: Sam's direct action! posted by The Everett Citizen on October 23, 1997 at 09:41:04:
: EC:
: My compost pile is STEAMING in the yard, even as we read. Soon it will be ready for veggies, herbs, and ornamentals (actually, not quite as frivolous as that word sounds. The beneficial insects and birds need the nectar of my ornamentals to fit nicely into my bio-diverse yard).According to Stephen Gliessman, who went to state of Tabasco in Mexico to study agro-ecological practices, the Tlaxcaltecans (who allegedly have farmed their section of Tabasco with little or no depreciation in soil fertility for the past two millenia) have the terms "mal monte" and "buen monte," by which they mean "weeds" and "guest plants." The "guest plants" (there's really no word for them in English) are intruders from the outside of the farm, but they are also a welcome part of the ecology of the Tlaxcaltecan farm, in which the Tlaxcaltecans create a happy symbiosis between maize, beans, and squash. Are "ornamentals" the same as "buen monte"?
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