Having worked growing native plants for restoration efforts, I can say that this is 100% true. Our focus was on getting plants that will survive without any extra help after being put in the ground, so no fertilizer and limited water. A scraggly leaved plant with good roots would make it where something with lots of soft new growth would get eaten.
Survival of the most barely surviving
Well, that’s exactly what evolution optimizes for - the good enoughest of all good enough solutions.
I don’t feed my plants nitrogen exclusively. But I let them have a little now & then, as a treat.
I mean, yeah, that sucks, but what can we do about it? Grow less food?
Distributing it more efficiently would help.
I work at a warehouse during summers for a business that sells food on Amazon.
A good half of the inventory went to trash on certain days for reasons ranging from “packaging slightly bruised” to “there is not even air conditioning here and we sell ice cream.”
On that last note, I really want to ask people buying perishables from amazon during summer why they would such a thing.
…sells food on amazon
Oh no, this is going to suuuck
Ok, well, if I eat butter, I will be more delicious to bears and wolves. Doesn’t make butter somehow a problem.
Most people don’t live near hordes and hordes of hungry bears and wolves, and those that do are typically prepared to defend themselves or flee. Plants can do neither.
