In Defense of the WEED

Aside from term’s Cannabis connection, “weed” usually evokes a negative connotation – something bad and evil, that must be eradicated. Trillions of dollars a year are spent to that end. Maligning a plant in this way is akin to any form of discrimination based on race, sex or religion”.

Biologists, and indeed nature, does not designate a plant as a weed. Horticulturalists claim a weed to be “a wild plant growing where it is not wanted and in competition with cultivated plants”. This is clearly an arbitrary assignation based on the relative economic worth of a plant to certain people.

There are weeds, like the dandelion or Queen Anne’s Lace, that produce flowers as beautiful as any in the flower garden. Milkweed, which has even been branded in its common name, is a favored food plant of butterflies. A variety of weeds have medicinal value and others feed birds and small animals, or aid the biology of the soil.

Perhaps the most noxious and pervasive prejudice against weeds can be found in the quest for the “perfect” lawn. In the US alone, we spend over $40 Billion a year to maintain that elusive monoculture of a value-less crop; far more than we spend on foreign aid. Moreover, the efforts to eradicate weeds denies food and shelter to beneficial insects like bees and contaminates soil and groundwater.

So, let’s rethink our weed prejudice. Just like goat-ropers, weeds deserve love, too.