The Restless and Relentless Mind of Wes Jackson: Searching for Sustainability by Robert Jensen

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Restless and Relentless Mind of Wes Jackson: Searching for Sustainability by Robert Jensen Robert Lee Cavazos The Restless and Relentless Mind of Wes Jackson: Searching for Sustainability. By Robert Jensen. Foreword by David W. Orr. Lawrence: University of Kansas, 2021. vii + 140 pp. Illustrations, notes. $29.95 cloth. Robert Jensen is a professor emeritus at the University of Texas at Austin who, in The Restless and Relentless Mind of Wes Jackson, chronicles the work of Wes Jackson, the founder of The Land Institute in Salina, Kansas. Every year, Jackson holds an annual conference known as the Prairie Festival, in which researchers, environmentalists, and graduate students come together at the Big Barn to confront ecological and social issues in order to build a more sustainable future. [End Page 63] Conversations at the conference are centered around soil. Jackson believes that soil is vital for the survival of humankind, and that humans' intervention in agriculture has stripped carbon from soils, making agriculture unsustainable. Jackson challenges us to change how we see and think about things. The book attempts to understand how we humans took our position of dominance, which Jackson sees as detrimental to our future. We humans believe we have the right to change a system we benefit from despite the harm the system does to nature. The Green Revolution changed everything: it increased agricultural yields. Modern agriculture kills: the use of pesticides and herbicides that contaminate the water supply and kill the land is why Jackson sees it as not being sustainable. The following three chapters represent the centerpiece of Jensen's portrayal of Jackson's perspective on how humans began to outsmart themselves and move away from sustainability. We must learn to take nature seriously. No matter how far technology advances, we will forever be part of nature. Agriculture was always a part of nature until humans intervened in it. In the chapter "Taking Nature Seriously," Jackson sees nature as the supreme farmer. The natural agricultural process allows resources to be used freely and recycled organically so nothing is wasted. Our current agricultural system cannot reproduce this process. Our trust in machinery blinds us to reality; it and our technologies allow us to produce toxic chemicals without having to worry about the consequences, delaying the inevitable. Our current system is not sustainable, but machinery is not the answer. Technology does not solve our problems, as explained in the chapter "Too Many, Too Much." Humans consume renewable resources beyond the rate of replacement. The ability to use modern technology as a solution gets us into trouble. Humans assume they can play God in agricultural matters. With all the advances of civilization, we became greedy, which led to long-lasting devastation. In the chapter "Knowledge," we have become overconfident in our knowledge, to be blinded by our own beliefs even though acting on those beliefs will result in catastrophic damage. This is why we will truly never understand everything. The importance of a good future is to return to the basics of living life naturally, bringing communities together. This is where Jackson believes a more sustainable world awaits us—one that replaces the modern agricultural and industrial world of intensive carbon emission. Unfortunately, we see ourselves as bigger than nature; "we believe ourselves to be separable from the ecosystems on which our lives depend" (108). This is what makes Jackson's vision so important, as his book shows how humanity must return to nature if it is to have a fighting chance. Dramatic changes are needed because unstable ecosystems are not sustainable. Jackson makes you think about not only how to live a more sustainable life but more importantly how to appreciate nature. Robert Lee Cavazos Division of Sociology Tarleton State University Copyright © 2023 Center for Great Plains Studies