The following edition of the text was used in the creation of this study guide: Wall Kimmerer, Robin. The Serviceberry. Penguin Random House, 2024. Kindle AZW file.

Kimmerer recalls picking serviceberries alongside birds, feeling gratitude for nature’s abundance. She reflects on how seasonal cycles once guided human diets, contrasting this with modern food accessibility. Though the roots of the name “Serviceberry” isn’t tied to the word “service,” she sees the plant as vital to the ecosystem, supporting biodiversity and Indigenous food traditions. As a Potawatomi woman, Kimmerer notes that in the Anishinaabe worldview, nature’s gifts inspire gratitude. She critiques food inequality, arguing that prioritizing sharing over hoarding could create true security. Considering reciprocity, she explores ways to give back—caring for the land, supporting conservation, or spreading joy through art. She envisions an economy modeled after nature’s circular flow, where abundance comes from recycling and mutual exchange.

Kimmerer contrasts the Serviceberry’s ecosystem, which sustains and renews itself, with the human economy, which depletes resources. She likens nature’s generosity to a mother feeding a child—giving without expectation of return—and suggests that love in human relationships mirrors the Sun’s role in nature. Reflecting on her berries, she contrasts a gift economy, where generosity fosters community, with the transactional nature of a market economy, which creates no lasting bonds. She highlights how people cherish handmade gifts more than store-bought goods and advocates for seeing nature’s resources as gifts rather than commodities.

Kimmerer critiques GDP for ignoring essential values like clean air and biodiversity. Though not an economist herself, she contrasts a scarcity-based view of economics with ecological economist Dr. Valerie Luzadis’ perspective, which frames economics as organizing to sustain and enrich life. Kimmerer challenges the idea that the U.S. economy is the only possible model, sharing an anecdote about a Brazilian hunter who stores his meat in the belly of his brother, illustrating a gift economy where wealth is measured by generosity. She acknowledges that such systems work best in small, close-knit communities.

In gift economies, gratitude replaces money, fostering abundance through relationships. She discusses Indigenous potlatch ceremonies, banned by colonial authorities to enforce individualism. Shifting focus to her own community, she describes neighbors sharing surplus produce, particularly zucchini. She notes that people instinctively embrace gift economies in crises, such as bakeries giving free bread after disasters. Wondering how to sustain this generosity, she critiques economic theories assuming humans act purely in self-interest, arguing that people are just as inclined toward generosity. Kimmerer notes that many students see social media, especially TikTok, as a gift economy where creators share knowledge for free. She views such exchanges as small acts of resistance against capitalism’s environmental harm. While market economies rely on supply and demand, gift economies thrive on shared abundance.

She explains that we live in a mixed economy, with government regulation shaping markets. Rather than scaling gift economies, she argues their value lies in strengthening local relationships. She sees books as an example—personally gifting them, using community book stands, and acknowledging libraries as a form of shared access, though funded by taxes rather than generosity. Her daughter’s agricultural program attempted a gift economy by offering free vegetables, but when the stand was stolen, it showed how selfishness can undermine such systems. Kimmerer highlights the Dish With One Spoon treaty, an Indigenous agreement to share land and resources responsibly, and the Honorable Harvest guidelines, which emphasize gratitude and taking only what is needed.

Returning to the Serviceberry, she reflects on its economic lessons. Like the tree depends on birds to spread its seeds, reciprocity sustains ecosystems—Serviceberries produce sugar not to hoard, but to nourish birds, who in turn help the plant thrive. Kimmerer likens the person who stole the Free Farm Stand to exploitative corporations, arguing that just as Serviceberries and birds depend on each other, humans must embrace collaboration for survival. Ecological economist Dr. Valerie Luzadis affirms that the Serviceberry exemplifies interdependence, a key principle in ecological economics.

Kimmerer contrasts natural scarcity, like drought, with manufactured scarcity, where markets limit access for profit, citing water privatization as an example. She compares corporate greed to the Potawatomi monster Windigo, which suffers from endless consumption. Capitalism, she argues, now risks creating real scarcity through over-extraction.

Kimmerer’s neighbor Paulie’s generosity in letting people pick free berries at Springside Farm illustrates how goodwill can benefit businesses, fostering community connections. While large-scale gift economies may be impractical today, Kimmerer suggests individuals build small, interdependent communities alongside the market economy. Reflecting on the theft of the Free Farm Stand, she notes that an Eagle Scout later built multiple new stands, expanding the gift economy instead of weakening it. She compares economic transformation to ecological succession, where opportunistic species eventually give way to sustainable ecosystems.

Ending where she began, Kimmerer returns to berry picking, wondering if the joy found in nature might be a powerful force in resisting environmental destruction.