Returning to agriculture’s sustainable roots

When, save the last 100 years or so, has agriculture focused on a single product (plant, e.g., corn or soybeans, rice or peanuts, etc.)? Probably never intentionally – remember the oft cited ‘Three Sisters’ from Native American practices.

According to Chavonda Jacobs-Young, Ph.D. Administrator, Agricultural Research Service. U.S. Department of Agriculture, “in agricultural parlance, ‘The Three Sisters’ are crops planted together in a shared space: maize, beans, and squash…. Developed through [I]ndigenous agricultural practices, these three plants protect and nourish each other in different ways as they grow and provide a solid diet for their cultivators.”

National Agricultural Library – The Three Sisters of Indigenous American Agriculture | National Agricultural Library (usda.gov)

Another outcome of this non-binary thinking surfaces from a) solar farms with agrivoltaics (US Dept Energy) and b) agroforestry in Midwest US. Both practices combine different elements to sustain the land for future generations (maybe not seven but better).

Both these practices are ancient and must have been used for a practical purpose for a long time … until human innovations and probable arrogance thought of a better idea, but without comprehending unintended longterm consequences and our ancient wisdom. Maybe the smart people from ages ago can still be heard.

Single focus binary thinking locks into boxed canyon thinking. Options exist, choose again.

Agrivoltaics

Agrivoltaics has the potential to help farmers adapt to climate change and diversify their income through land lease payments or other business structures. Research in the drylands of Arizona found that farming under solar panels can decrease evaporation of water from the soil and potentially reduce irrigation requirements. Agrivoltaics can also improve crop yield and crop resistance in extreme weather, such as droughts. Adding farming to existing solar energy sites is being explored as an approach to increase access to land for historically disadvantaged groups, such as Black and immigrant farmers. At the same time, questions remain for farmers about how to do agrivoltaics, including which crops are suitable in a shaded environment.

US Dept Energy https://www.energy.gov/eere/solar/articles/potential-agrivoltaics-us-solar-industry-farmers-and-communities

Agroforestry

By combining food-bearing trees and shrubs with poultry production, Haslett-Marroquin and his peers are practicing what is known as agroforestry — an ancient practice that intertwines annual and perennial agriculture. Other forms include alley cropping, in which annual crops including grains, legumes, and vegetables grow between rows of food-bearing trees, and silvopasture, which features cattle munching grass between the rows.

Yale Environment 360 – https://e360.yale.edu/features/trees-agriculture-farming