Sustainability has become a buzzword- it’s used in reference to energy policy, abiotic natural resources, and cultural practices. It’s also being used in reference to agricultural practices. Though we’ve improved on crop yields through modern farming methods, there are still ways in which we can increase our efficiencies while simultaneously providing a place for nature to thrive.
Let’s think in terms of spatial efficiency and functional efficiency for a moment, considering spatial to be the amount of stuff we can pack in a given location and functional being the number of different tasks that can be accomplished per organism. From this standpoint, traditional farming produces food but depletes resources and only yields food in a strictly planar fashion. It certainly has advantages in terms of scale and efficiency of production of the food crops we’re interested in, but at the cost of damaging ecosystems and reducing habitat for other flora and fauna. Not only that- traditional farming methods also tend to increase soil erosion and deplete the nutrients that every living thing in an ecosystem relies on. Done responsibly, using crop rotation and methods such as no-till, it can certainly meet our needs, but it’s still at a cost- a cost to us and to the ecosystem of which it is a (minimally contributing) part. Further, a modern farm requires significant inputs of fertilizer to maintain the soil, fertilizer that often ends up in the streams and rivers of a watershed, promoting algal blooms and adversely affecting oxygen levels, not to mention that a 2006 Cornell University study estimates that the U.S. is losing topsoil at 10 times the natural replenishment rate due to agricultural processing, On the harvesting side, though, it’s hard to argue against the efficiency of food collection in bulk, and demands for food are projected to rise globally during the 21st century.
Polyculture tries to mimic the kind of functioning you see in a natural ecosystem by establishing multiple species in the same area. Plants, like people, have tastes and requirements for certain nutrients as well as differing root depths; a diverse group, by definition, can make better use of the soil conditions in a place than a single species can. By allowing the soil to stand as-is, soil development and commensurate expansion of the flora and fauna that live within it can occur. This change, coupled with the recycling of biomass, allows the system to be far closer to a closed system and dramatically reduces the necessity of chemical inputs. Inclusion of fauna and the diversity of plant species makes such a “farm” far less of a target for pests and improves its ability to weather disease. Greater vegetative cover reduces the rate of evaporation and provides more habitat for fauna. This same difference also allows for greater infiltration of water into the soil and, eventually, into the plants or the water table. Perhaps surprisingly, research indicates that the yield for polycultures is greater than a monoculture of equivalent area and is far more resistant to climate and weather extremes. Far from being an aberration or temporary fad, polyculture has been practiced for the majority of human history with great success. Where the system has issues is from the set-up and harvesting standpoint. While a conventional monoculture can be harvested with minimal human input using automation, harvesting food from a polyculture is significantly more labor intensive. Likewise, planning and planting a polyculture garden represents a significant effort. Such concerns should not be treated lightly, however, that effort can be turned into an opportunity by using it as a chance for a community to gain gardening skills, get physical exercise, and understand the natural world in something more akin to its proper context.
Polyculture isn’t just a terrestrial phenomenon. Many studies have been done investigating the benefits of polyculture principles in the context of aquaculture- one method most fish owners can appreciate and understand is having a scavenger species help to control plankton and algae populations while simultaneously providing a food source for a predator species. Another is to have a plankton and/or herbivorous feeder such as tilapia along with a predator such as bass. Such a combination can actually increase the proportion of prey species, especially when the predator is chosen to reduce the population of small fish in the system. As one might expect, there are examples where this system has been combined with terrestrial polyculture to create an even larger system with enhanced water and waste management characteristics.
Polyculture certainly is not a perfect solution to our food production sustainability issues; much as the Biosphere 2 team learned in the 90’s, it can be extremely challenging to design a working ecosystem with a subset of the full range of organisms found in the natural environment. Further, harvesting the food grown is certainly a more complicated matter than in a monoculture farm. However, if you look at the promise of this farming method from both the technical and community aspects, it would seem to be an excellent start to regaining some of the relevance of the natural world while putting more healthful food on the table.
[...] Monoculture vs. Polyculture Farming Methods By sfears1 Though we’ve improved on crop yields through modern farming methods, there are still ways in which we can increase our efficiencies while simultaneously providing a place for nature to thrive. Let’s think in terms of spatial efficiency … True Progress – http://true-progress.com [...]
[...] public links >> ecosystem Monoculture vs. Polyculture Farming Methods First saved by profeel | 9 days ago The ecosystem is a mess First saved by mcilrath | 27 days [...]
[...] Throughout this process, I’ve become much more aware. Aware of the social and economic impact I have as a consumer, aware of the process through which my food is grown and cared for, and aware of the people I’m entrusting to provide this food to me. In a sense, I feel much more connected. Connected to the community I’m a part of, and to all of the lives and occupations that on a daily basis intertwine with mine. Part of whom I share this connection with is my family. As I’ve mentioned previously, my grandparents and a few of my close relatives are corn and soybean farmers out in rural, western Minnesota. They land they own out there dates back several generations, and the stories they share are rich in history. I recently took a mini road-trip out there to catch up, and ask questions concerning my new-found experiment. Let me start out by saying, there is nothing like Minnesotan hospitality. I mention to my grandma, (the day of, at 8am already in my car), that I’m deciding to sporadically take a road trip out there, and the first thing she says back is, “Can you be here by noon? I’ll have dinner ready.” You just can’t beat that! I walk in the door to smiling faces and warm hugs, and soon I sit down to a fresh cooked meal of pork roast, home grown mashed potatoes and sweet corn, salad, bread and jam, and homemade sweet pickles. Talk about a FEAST! I soon began to start asking questions, and the more I asked, the more I was fascinated! There isn’t enough time or space to write down everything I could learn from them, but I can certainly try. I asked my grandpa what he thought of modern day industrialized farming as opposed to the days of the old, and it was a tough answer. I think in some respects he definitely agrees that the new way of farming is easier in terms of physical labor and how many people it takes to run a farm, but at the same time some of the history and self-sustainability has been lost. It used to be where one single farm could be producing multiple crops and raising multiple varieties of livestock at one time, partially due to the large families who helped run them, but also in part because the times have changed and it’s not always possible anymore financially. It’s a rare thing to find a farm like this nowadays. My grandparents and my grandma’s parents, (from whom they bought the farm), used to plant oats, flax, wheat, soybeans, sweet corn, (and more), all the while raising chickens, hogs, and cattle. My grandpa’s parents used to raise dairy cows and sell their cream to the local creamery to make butter. That thought just blew my mind! Here I am, circa 2010, trying my hardest to find Minnesota made sweet cream butter from pasture raised cows, (the best of which I can find is one brand at Kowalski’s, for a pretty penny…), while back in the day technically you could buy Rheingans’ Sweet Cream Butter out in rural Minnesota like it was no big deal! The idea just killed me! What I would give to live in those days, where self-sustainability and smaller-scale farming was the norm. Now, I am not saying that large-scale farming is bad in any way, it’s just the times have changed and things are different now. The larger companies from whom we can buy seed for crops have patented genetically modified seeds so you can’t save them for planting the next year. And due to the large distributors and companies who buy the majority of the crops grown in the US today, we are primarily farming thousands of acres of monocultures. Monocultures meaning only one variety of plant grown within a certain plot of land, which in turn cancels out the opportunity for natural pest and weed control to take place. Planting monocultures leaves us no choice but to use chemical insecticides and pesticides, which as I’m beginning to learn can leave consequences for both the environment and the consumer. (For a great website on monocultures vs polycultures, here is a great resource!) http://true-progress.com/monoculture-vs-polyculture-farming-methods-84.htm [...]
[...] are planted with petunias, bush beans with pansies, mustard greens with marigolds. In these polycultures, the edible flowers provide habitat for beneficial insects and in some cases keep pests away. Their [...]
[...] Modern farming systems focus on uniformity for ease of cultivating, harvesting and processing. But this comes at a cost in chemical inputs and soil depletion, not to mention loss of potential disease and pest immunity. The main benefit of industrial farming has been, pure and simple, cheap fodder. Quantity over quality. Now that the climate is acting up and fuel prices are steadily rising, even mass-produced food costs are rising, negating what benefits there might have been from this unnatural way of growing food. Many communities are turning to local diversified farmers for quality food, and our neck of the woods, Bellingham/Whatcom WA is in the forefront of this resurgence of domestic farming – Life in a Local Living Economy [...]
[...] proper soil health and fertility, using organic methods. These methods include permaculture, polyculture, and biodynamics. Permaculture, which means “permanent agriculture”, is perhaps the [...]
[...] you can shop at markets, buy organic (or not), change the way you shop (nice graph), get more sustainable (polyculture farming), get local (CSA), as well as be realistic at the same [...]
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[...] In short, farms that only plant one crop, known as monoculture, deplete the soil more quickly. Soon the soils will become infertile and erode. With many different types of crops, known as polyculture, the soils are able to replenish themselves. This allows for farmers to plant on the same soil year after year (learn more about polyculture here) [...]