Summary

The author returns to the topic of the person who stole the Free Farm Stand. She nicknames this kind of person “Darren” (45) naming them after the CEO of ExxonMobil. Like the person who stole the farm stand, preventing other people from partaking in the gift economy of free vegetables, the fossil fuel companies destroy the environment the rest of us need in order to survive. She argues that, just like the Serviceberry could not survive in the long term without the birds, and vice versa, human beings need to work collaboratively rather than competitively in order to survive, concluding that “all flourishing is mutual” (46). Kimmerer discusses her observations about the Serviceberry with Dr. Valerie Luzadis, an ecological economist, who agrees with her assessment that the Serviceberry’s ecosystem is analogous to an economic system. Luzadis argues that the Serviceberry models “interdependence and coevolution” (47) which...