We know that some plants are hallucinogenic, some are addictive, and gardening is proven to reduce depression. What about the compounds that may be inside an apple, or an ear of corn? The question becomes, in what other ways are they influencing us? A fleet of humans carefully tending a field of crops can certainly start to look like an army of plant symbionts, diligently serving the plants’ needs. I think about Vavilovian mimicry: we didn’t domesticate oats; oats domesticated us. When I look at a field of cabbage or pumpkin or blueberries, I wonder: Have they conscripted a symbiont, and is
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