Building Alive, Designing to Thrive

My title is inspired by Larry Forcier, a UVM Professor whom used this a part of his definition for an ecosystem in his Natural Resources and Field Ecology Intro course. As one of 200 or so freshmen taking the class, I didn't think how impactful the statement really was at the time. Because knowing or defining humans as a part of an ecosystem, is not common thought. And it ought to be. Last summer, as I convinced my mother to begin composting some of our food waste, she began to voice her concerns. "Compost isn't sanitary" "How does it become dirt" "won't the dirt smell like food and attract animals". And I realized that she did not know that something as simple, vital, and magical as making dirt was not just an ability of people- but a moral responsibility. Humans are the ones who exploited the soils in the name of monoculture and 'progress'. Now we have so many toxics in our landfills that when you throw something 'away' it goe