Not only can researchers mimic natural materials but we can also look at entire systems for answers. How do organisms in ecosystems interact with one another? Where do they get their energy? What happens to their waste? If we ask these questions we find answers that have been a part of nature all along and provide practical solutions to human problems. What follows are examples of how we can use the concepts of biomimicry to insert ourselves back into the natural cycles and systems. One example explores food production as a basic need product, and the second looks at waste management nature's way. Farming Like a Prairie Since the launch of the chemical revolution and the second generation pesticides that came out of World War I military tactics, industrial agriculture, has been stuck on the "pesticide treadmill" (Miller, 2004). This treadmill of spraying for pests that eventually become resistant, which causes us to increase our chemical doses on the land, sounds akin to the cyclical chemical dependency the human body seems to face with addictive drugs. And it seems just as treacherous to extricate ones self. Once on the " pesticide treadmill soil biota that would otherwise cycle nutrients in the soil are damaged. Thereby creating a secondary dependence on synthetic fertilizers. Since 1945 pesticide use has risen 3,300 percent, but overall crop loss to pests has not gone down (Benyus, 2002, p. 18). In addition about forty percent of the soils on the planet are already seriously degraded and continue to decline (Jackson as cited in Ausubel, 2005, p. 113). Although these petroleum-based applications have long since claimed to be "the only way to feed the world," some people are looking for healing; a healing of the soil, of the well water, and of ourselves.

The Land Institute in Salinas, Kansas is a research facility and farm that is thinking outside of the traditional industrial methods and looking to the local ecosystem for lessons. It is difficult to take that first step, but like an intervention, the offender must first admit that there is a problem, and then want to find help. In other words, first we must realize that we are often more ignorant than we are knowledgeable. As Wes Jackson, Director of The Land Institute, puts it, we must "embrace the arrangements that have shaken down in the long evolutionary process and try to mimic them, ever mindful that human cleverness must remain subordinate to nature's wisdom" (p. 11). "Essentially we need to farm the way nature farms" (as quoted in Benyus, 1997, p. 21.)

The impetus to begin agricultural research at the Land Institute was inspired by the critical issues of soil erosion. A quarter to a third of our topsoil is now gone, only 200 years after opening this country to agriculture (www.thelandinstitute.org). After a good storm sweeps across the plains a drive around often reveals damaged plants and soil running in rivulets down roads around traditional wheat farms. However if one takes a field trip to an intact prairie, one will find most of the water absorbed and the plants still standing. Studies revealed that there are eighty-eight times the run-off from a typical Kansas wheat field compared to an intact prairie (Benyus, 1997, p. 25).

What they realized at the Land Institute was that industrial agriculture has long depended on annual monocultures, or growing fields and fields of one type of short lived crop. Although we can create machinery that is adapted to our specialty crop and focus our marketing energies on one product the limitations of this model are revealing themselves, and they are extensive. The Land Institute began studying the prairie's perennial polyculture model and found that besides being great sponges they were also "self-fertilizing and self weeding." (Benyus, 1997, p. 25). They wanted to see if they could apply the prairie's principles, and gain its advantages, while still producing desired crops (Jackson, as cited in Ausubel, 2005, p. 110).

When they looked into the prairie system they found that by creating a similar polyculture, or mix of plants including 1) perennial grasses, 2) legumes, 3) sunflowers, 4) grain crops, and 5) plants with natural insecticides grown together in one field they reaped many of the natural benefits. The first benefit was improved soil integrity and health. This stems from the natural nitrogen-fixing adaptations of legumes (their roots systems attract natural soil biota to create nitrogen fertilizer for plants). This chemical "fixing" process is provided "free-of-charge" by symbiotic soil bacteria. However, in monoculture farming. Fixing must be accomplished manually as soils are rendered "dead" by loss of top soil and a chemical load. The manual nitrogen-fixing process utilized in modern industrial agriculture requires the extensive use of fossil fuels. Jackson has calculated that we use 1.8 times as much energy in fossil fuels in order to create this same nitrogen fertilizer, than in than all tractors and farm equipment combined (Jackson as cited in Ausubel, 2005, p. 109).

In polyculture systems the root integrity of perennial, or multiple season plants, is able to use the soil fertility more efficiently because various plant species have different root depths in which to capture nutrients (Miller, 2004, p. 277). Although part of the root systems always remain intact to hold in soil, thirty percent of the roots die and decay each year adding additional "free" fertilizer in the form of organic matter to the soil (Benyus, 1997, -25). These plant communities are efficiently recycling their phosphorus, potassium, manganese, and other nutrients (Jackson as cited in Ausubel, 2005, p. 110). Healthy root and soil systems foster fungal symbiotic relationships in which mycorrhizae extend the roots ability to absorb water and nutrients ten to a hundred fold and increase soil water holding capacity (Stamets, 2005). The survival of native plants in America's midwest requires a hardy set of adapations to cope with summer’s heat and drought, (temperatures can exceed 110 degrees F and it may not rain for months). In winter, the temperature can dip to –40, without the wind chill factor. "These plants must have hefty underground 'bank accounts' to weather the bad times that would put lesser plants out of business for good" (www.prairienursery.com). During the summer droughts that periodically visit the American landscape, the deep-rooted prairie plants draw moisture and nutrients from deep in the soil. Some prairie plants are known to have roots that exceed twenty feet. This allows them to acquire deep seated moisture and continue to grow even under extremely trying conditions. Also, unlike annual fields that are periodically plowed leaving exposed soil, the perennial root systems hold soil and prevent erosion in wind and rain. In addition using hardier perennials gives more resilience in dry spells as well. This combination in itself maintained topsoil and removed the need to use fertilizers on their crops. This would indicate a huge time, energy and money saver.

Having the mix of various plants is the prairie's natural defense against weeds and predators. It seems "diversity is the cheapest and best form of pest control" (Benyus, 2002, p. 26). All available space is used and divided up by the various species living in their dynamic balance. Therefore, there are no open spaces for weeds to inhabit. In monocultures, plants are placed in rows with cleared spaces of open soil around them. This open area continues to get the same sun and fertilizer as the desired crop plants, therefore it is a constant battle of herbicides or labor to keep the weeds at bay. The thought is that weeds will compete for nutrients and water, which is why farmers space their crops and use herbicides. However in the thicket of prairie plants the time tested natural systems have worked out partitioning of the resources; blooming at different times and having root systems of varying depths.

In addition the multiple plant types provide various smells and signals, both attractive and detracting for insects. The implications of this are that there are various habitats supplied for natural predators of the crop eating insects, and the fields will not attract the same damaging level of pests due to the mixed cues and forage. Where as annual fields are acres and acres of the same crop advertising its abundance to specialist pests. (Miller, 2004, p. 284; Piper as cited in Benyus, 2002, p. 26).In addition the diversity of plants and diversity of genes helps insure a natural defense against disease as well. When all seeds are genetically homogeneous then farmers become very vulnerable to one disease wiping out entire crops (Miller, 2004, p. 295).

Today most of our calories come from only about 20 species of plants, all of them annuals (Benyus, 2002, p. 26). Of the 30,000 edible plants, we still gain over half of our calories from only three, wheat rice and corn (Miller, 2005, p. 278). And the UN estimates that two-thirds of all seeds planted in developing countries are of uniform strains (Miller, 2005,p.295). The Land Institute's research has show that it is possible to get equivalent productivity out of perennial plants grown in a polyculture setting. Certainly we need to get creative about our harvesting practices, and retire the machines that sewed seeds in rows and harvested monocultures. In addition labor and money are ultimately saved from the new freedom from chemical fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides, while the topsoil is maintained for generations to come.

As amazing as the findings are prairie polyculture cannot, and should not be broadcast to all agricultural areas, because not all areas are prairies. "Natural systems are interconnected in such an intricate pattern that the idea that you can just put anything anywhere is terribly destructive. Yet, in many ways, we've based our whole culture on it." (Barlow as cited in Jenson, 2002, p. 8). However, the biomimicry paradigm is easily exportable. Instead The Land Institute would encourage people to look at the what nature is doing naturally in their area and use its lessons to amend farming practices to better integrate them with the land (Benyus, pp. 35-6). And indeed it is beginning spread; there is a permaculture movement sweeping Australia, and Masanobu Fukuoka's "Do-Nothing" rice farming techniques from Japan springing up all over Asia, (Benyus, 1997), shade grown coffee replacing traditional plantations and restoring rain forest, and Dan Daggat's rangeland restoration with cattle in America's west, just to name a few (Ausubel, 2003).

In addition to helping the soil, water and land within the local area of the farm, this type of farming paradigm has much more broad-reaching implications. Perennial polyculture has the potential to reduce the chemical load that affects farm workers health, and is re-circulating and biomagnifying through natural systems and through mothers and breast milk. In addition, it has the potential to reduce our dependence on oil and natural gas. Oil is used to run our farming equipment, ship our food around the world, and is refined into our fertilizers and pesticide products. Looking locally for answers and for food reduces this burden. The Land Institute runs its tractors on the sunflower seed oil found yielded in its polyculture. Seed diversity is increased as farmers return to breeding seeds adapted to local conditions. These biomimics are seeking solutions to feed our ever bulging population in a truly sustainable way.