Improving plant positivity when teaching classification and evolution – one step in the cultural shift needed for a sustainable future.
The importance of a plant-rich education
The Royal Society of Biology recognises that plants have generally been under-represented in biology education. This is why their ‘Evolving 5-19 Biology: Recommendations and a framework for 5-19 biology curricula’ features its fifth recommendation. (Figure 1).
The observation that 'there is a "leaky pipeline" of plant science undergraduates and workers' indicates, of course, fewer plant scientists than is desirable for helping to address the climate and biodiversity crisis. After all, plant scientists study many of the things that will lead us through the difficult times ahead, such as:
- alternative protein sources to move to a more plant-based diet
- more efficient agriculture
- fossil fuel alternatives for energy and manufacturing
- agriculture that is more resilient to the stresses that a changing climate will bring
- natural carbon capture and sequestration
- ecosystem services such as flood protection
- the conservation and restoration of biodiversity.
However, it’s not just a lack of plant scientists or ‘plant-aware’ biologists and STEM graduates that is the problem. This lack exposure to plants, resulting in low plant positivity (i.e. low plant awareness or plant blindness) also has, I believe, an impact on our relationship with nature. It is one of the aspects of our current culture that had led us, as a society, to feel apart from nature, and to not value it as much as we should.