Three Sisters Meet a FunGuy

Proto-Sociality for Ecologists and Economists

Whoa …. Gather around, folks! Let me introduce you to a scene that’s as old as time and as quirky as any relationship where humans and/or fungi try to get along.

Meet the original Three Sisters: Maize, Beans, and Squash.

Our ancestors were botanical geniuses. They figured out that planting these three crops together was like hitting the agricultural jackpot. They knew that by planting different plants together the plants could help each other grow. The Three Sisters (maize/corn, beans, and squash) is what folks call inter-cropping or mixed-cropping, and archaeological evidence has shown that these three plants been hanging out together, sharing resources, and generally having each other's backs for over 5,000 years. That's some serious sisterhood right there! [Read More about the Three Sisters]

There is a lot going on here … Welcome to a world of ecological economics where plants, fungi, and people all work together—above ground and below.

Growing maize, beans and squash together was a stroke of environmental genius, the benefits of this practice are still being studied today to understand ecological and grassroots economics.

Let's dive in! 🌱🍄 and separate it into Above Ground and Below Ground:

[Above Ground]

1. Maize grows tall and provides a natural trellis for the beans to climb, which helps the beans access sunlight without sprawling across the ground.

2. Squash plants spread across the ground, creating a living mulch that suppresses weeds, reduces soil erosion, and maintains soil moisture.

3. The leaves and vines of the beans can help create a microclimate that benefits both maize and squash. By covering the maize stalks and spreading among the squash, bean plants can reduce wind speed and moderate temperature around the plants, which helps in maintaining moisture levels and reducing stress on the maize and squash.

Above ground we humans can play crucial roles in planting and cultivating these three sisters. Now lets look below ground 🍄.

[Below Ground]

Imagine the soil is transparent and you can see the roots of maize, beans and squash growing next to each other. Let’s talk about how each of the three sisters works below ground as they are quite different.

1. Maize (or Corn if you are from the USA) has a deep root system that can access phosphorus (P) from deeper layers of the soil. Phosphorus is a mineral essential for energy for growing, roots development and flowering.

2. Squash plants, with their extensive shallow root system, are efficient at absorbing potassium (K) from the soil. Potassium is important for the overall functioning of plant cells, including enzyme activation, photosynthesis, and the regulation of water balance.

3. Beans have a symbiotic relationship with bacteria that convert nitrogen in the air to a form of nitrogen that plants can use. This process enriches the soil with nitrogen which plants need for building proteins, photosynthesis and growth regulation.

[Symbiotic Resource Coordination]

Each of these plants has a special ability to get or process certain resources or minerals. Maize - can get lots of Phosphorus, Squash can get lots of Potassium and Beans can get lots of Nitrogen. (they do much more than just this – but for simplicity here lets leave it here).

But how do they actually share these with each other!?

Do we have to wait to have money and then trade that for the nutrients they need?

Hell No!!!

What this I smell… something funny…. Oh here comes the Funguy! 🍄

The ‘Funguy’ is actually a special fungus from the Fungi kingdom (I didn’t make that up …. it is an actual real scientific term and biological classification) … The fungi is neither a plant or animal and it can help plants pool and share their resources.

A specific fungi that helps plants share resources is called mycorrhizal fungi and they are like underground gardeners. They grow on the roots of the plants and extend those roots systems so they can share resources.

Mycorrhizal fungi have the following parts or organs:

1. Hyphae: Long, thread-like structures that extend into the soil, absorbing water and nutrients (e.g., phosphorus, nitrogen and potasium) from the soil and roots around the plants.

2. Mycelium: A network of hyphae that connects plant roots, facilitating nutrient and water exchange between plants.

3. Arbuscules: Branched structures inside plant root cells that facilitate nutrient exchange between the fungus and the plant.

4. Spores: Reproductive units that allow the fungi to reproduce and colonize new plant roots.

5. Vesicles: Storage structures within the hyphae that hold nutrients and lipids for later use by the fungi or plant.

[Plants can signal that they need help]

So when the maize is growing and needs more potassium and nitrogen (and even other resources like water) it sends out a signal through the fungal network.

The beans with excess nitrogen and the squash with excess potassium push it out into the fungal network and the maize can absorb it! It’s 🌽A-maize-ing! 🌽

Now that the maize is thriving and has extra phosphorus it can repay the favor and send that phosphorous back to the beans and squash that need them. This grassroots economy is happening continuously underground! Check it out!

Unbelievable!

The fungal network also stores many nutrients in its vesicles which acts like a common pool of resources that each sister has access to – since they are the ones filling it up.

Of course all guys, FunGuy’s and fungi need to eat too – so as they provide this pooling and peering exchange service they eat a little bit of the nutrients (especially sugars) that the plants exchange. This is what is called a symbiotic relationship – everyone benefits and it’s fun! 🍄🍄🍄

So - the mycorrhizal fungi system is like a gardener underground storing nutrients, and enabling exchange between the plants. But lets probe a little farther inside the fungal system. It’s not as simple as just making paths for nutrients to flow, the system must also steward how the nutrients flow.

They do this by listening to signals and giving different nutrients different priorities and relative value to each other at different times and also limiting how much of any one nutrient is in the system. There is a lot we don’t know and great mystery here on how this is done - which is what mycologists like Paul Stamets study.

These functions of connecting valuable resources to enable exchange, storing, valuing and limiting the nutrients produces a proto-social environment that helps life flourish - this is what we call a healthy ecosystem.

Here’s what is also amazing ….

Our Heritage

While our ancestors were cultivating the three sisters above ground and they were also doing something similar to what the fungi do below ground - among themselves…...

One family (like the maize above) could signal or call on the rest of the community to help them in farming and house building or other needs and in return they would help the others over time. This is sometimes called rotating labor associations (ROLA) or Mweria in Kenya among the Mijikenda people who still do this!

For example: one family needs help with farming to get ready for the rainy season. The other families also need this help and decided to help each other in turns. If someone misses a turn they can make it up later.

Instead of a fungi helping them - they are able to pool and share resources themselves!

They do it by:

1. Storing the memory of who has helped who – this is like a reputation.

2. Controlling how the resources are exchanged by giving them - Relative value to each other at different times (like the work of thatching a roof, compared to bringing mud for walls or harvesting.

3. Limiting how much of any one good or service is provided (making sure one good or service doesn’t overload the rest).

4. Exchanging these commitments and resources while appreciating the stewardship.

Again - These functions of connecting valuable resource, valuing them relative to each other and limiting too many of any one resource, and allowing exchange produce a proto-social environment that helps life flourish – plants and fungi as well as us humans.

When we see these functions happening with plants and fungi we call that resource pooling and when we see it with humans - sharing their commitments for resources we call that Commitment Pooling - since we humans can not-only share physical resources but also our promises or commitments for those resources.

What about today?

1. Today we all have → goods and services that other people need.

2. Today we all need → goods and services that other people have.

Do we have to wait to have money and then trade that for the things we need?

Hell No!!!

We are like the three sisters – but where is our FunGuy? How can we reach a healthy environment while fairly sharing our resources? Could we all be a FunGuy?

We learned that plants share via a mycorrhizal network with resource pooling and that our ancestors and still many communities share via commitment pooling.

Could we all also use this protocol today? How would that work?

It’s something like a library system – where we need to keep track of the signals of peoples’ offers and wants and commitments - and when people make and want to exchange commitment for goods or services – we need a system where people can implement Commitment Pooling:

1. Curate and store those commitments and their history (which are valuable to you?)

2. Give them relative value (How do you value them?)

3. Limit how many of any one kind can come in (Don’t get over loaded)

4. Enable the exchange while providing for those would are running this system.

This is what we’re learning about and proto-typing with Grassroots Economics Foundation at https://Sarafu.Network and we hope you can use and build on these ideas and technologies more and more!

Here at https://viz.sarafu.network you can see a network of people and groups and businesses exchanging commitments for resources with each other on Celo Blockchain - growing daily.

You can give it a try yourself as a beta tester and see how you can express your offerings of goods or services while also cultivating a grassroots economy as flowing pools of commitments among your friends and value network.

Contact info@grassecon.org if you are interested and they can help you with instructions or customizing the technology for your needs.

Here is a brief to get you started on Sarafu.Network:

0🍄Goto https://sarafu.network and click Create Paper Wallet and download the image - you will need this - save and and ideally print too – this is your account. It will look like this:

1🍄Goto https://sarafu.network again and connect your wallet Paper Wallet. You can show it the paper you printed on your camera or load it from your phone or computer memory where you saved it.

2🍄Click ‘Apply for a Social Account and fill it out – For beta testers we have to approve it so let us know at info@grassecon.org this may take a day or two.

3🍄Now on the left you can open the Voucher Menu – choose create a Voucher. Go through all the steps and lemme know any issue or corrections. You will in the end have to sign/approve several time times. (This is creating a formalized commitment like a gift card on the Celo distributed Ledger).

4🍄Make another account or have a friend do it also and practice sending your vouchers to each other using your alias (that you made sfor your social account – click top right to see your profile).

5🍄Now on the Pool menu at Sarafu.Network – click create a Pool. Fill it in and click create - you will have to wait a few minutes - but it will eventually say success!

6🍄Once the Pool has been created you can Add Vouchers there - add the ones you created or those of you and a friend, give them an relative value / exchange rate eg. (1) then a limit (100) example. You will need to sign/approve as well.

7🍄Go back to the Pool and Deposit/Seed some of your vouchers into the pool.

8🍄Now you can swap one voucher for the other voucher.

Here you have a simple instrument that allows people to exchange their commitments (like gift cards) for goods and services together. For more ideas on using your pool check out this introduction to commitment pooling. As well as this on mutual credit.

Check out this simulation/game as well!
Have fun and practice being a FunGuy!