Ecologically, diversity allows for a balanced ecosystem where different species help to accelerate or inhibit the growth of one another. Socially, diversity allows for integrative consideration and equal participation in a public food forest. In either setting, diversity creates conflicts and a dynamic equilibrium to make sure that no species or a specific group of people occupy all the benefits by excluding the others.

Diversity may be in terms of sex, age, race, occupation, financial status and many more. As the Beacon Food Forest is located on a public land in Seattle, one of the most culturally diverse cities in the United States, we are advised by the City government at the initial stage of the project to showcase our design map of the Beacon Food Forest in communities of different cultures. It was a necessary step to gain diverse support and proof that this project is not only in the interest of one group but many different groups of people. By valuing these diverse cultures, we ended up getting vast emails of interest and even seeds and plants that are unique to these people’s homeland (foreign but not invasive), and of course the City government’s approval to proceed the project.