Boo, monoculture farming
this post was submitted on 24 Oct 2023
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If the heavy equipment is electric I'll allow it since heavy equipment for multi crop farming just isn't there yet, but man don't I wish we could do the three sisters with tractors and combines.
A life goal of mine is to try to develop tools to help automate sustainable agriculture as much as possible. As I see it, part of the reason we keep on doing the monocultures is because the alternatives are just so dang labor-intensive, and anything that helps sustainable polycultures, agroforestry, etc. be more automated and less labor-intensive makes it easier for us to finally kick our current soil-destroying and ecosystem-obliterating habits.
Absolutely. I have a dream that autonomous farming drones will make far more labor intensive forest garden systems viable. They’re already far more productive, biodiverse, and resilient, they just require very high labor inputs, which is why they’re only used in parts of the world where labor is more available than machinery or other inputs. But if we can flip that equation by eliminating the labor component it’s all upside.
Drones are one of the more useless gadgets to have been inflicted upon agriculture. I remember being, very briefly, part of a university project that had gotten a grant for a drone agricultural project. They ended up building a robot because the drone ended up being useless for the needed solution, but they still had to add a drone because the money was for an 'agricultural drone project'.
Drones can help in large monocultures to detect pest attacks and nutrient deficiencies. But a farmer can also detect these by walking the field and looking at the plants, and he can get so much more info like that! Problem is if he manages more hectars than he can comfortably walk.
Now, how many of the people currently working in bullshit jobs dream of having time and space to grow a garden? There's probably quite a few.
I used to be super afraid of the hard labor of food production before I finally took up gardening on a more consistent scale. My feeble attempts now produce food all year long. There's always something green or tasty or sweet or healthy inmidst the 7x15m green mess. Thing is, with a diverse garden (not a monoculture) any 80yo village granny around here who has learned the skill produces ludicrous amounts of food on land the size of a towel. It takes skill, and doing it right, and then it's decidedly not hard and becomes something you do in your spare time.
because the alternatives are just so dang labor-intensive
Not really, but our math is skewed. Fossil-fuel based activities are less labor-intensive but much more energy-intensive. Our belief that we cannot survive without monoculture is because we compare labor apples with energy oranges.
The one in center looks like is using pot gasoline or something.
I'm assuming it's CBD oil. THC oil is for flying machines ;)
How else would hemp be grown at an industrial scale, though?
Boo, industrial scale!
Just don't grow things on an industrial scale, because that is very destructive. Small and local. How was it grown traditionally, before fossil fuels flattened the land? On smaller patches. I'd probably compare it to how corn is grown here in the mountains in Southern Europe: small fields, 50x50m max. That lends itself to these fields being separated by hedges where important partner plants and medicinal plants for your fields and meadows grow, and where wildlife finds a spot to hide. This kind of small scale gardening and agriculture still works in many parts of the world and still produces more than 50% of the food (I might be wrong on that but I remember reading it somewhere).
I suppose doing that could be an important part in a collapse of the capitalist system. If a community decided to stop farmers from selling massive harvests of one crop to corporations and supermarkets, often in other countries, and instead went back to eating locally grown seasonal food.
I mean, hemp grows pretty much anywhere
Can you please explain why that's bad or link something that explains it?
Monoculture farming propagates plant diseases and results in a more fragile crop harvest. For example, if a region like the Midwest has a major explosion in corn borer populations, corn yields will be devastated. Monocultures are far less resilient during drought and other climate change caused problems. It also results in massive amounts of overproduction, especially when combined with industrial farming. The lack of biodiversity also hurts surrounding land and animals. I think it's enough of a reason to simply not create boring landscapes full of a single crop. In all, a solarpunk community in an anarchist society should be able to grow enough food to meet their needs through community and individual gardens, with enough to make it throughout the year and help other communities nearby.
Arguably a massive amount of overproduction is somewhat needed though, not only to prevent starvation but at an economic level to keep prices to a standard CPI range so to speak
Overproduction means exactly what it sounds like, so no, it isn't necessary. Sure, some overproduction might happen, and that's not always bad. Technically a larger than expected harvest is overproduction, and that's not a bad thing. But massive amounts of overproduction is destroying the environment and creating several tons of food waste every day. That's a practice that we need to stop.
Then we somewhat agree, overproduction can sometimes be a good thing in certain circumstances. But then let me ask you this, how much money is that food waste worth at a rate of say one us dollar per kg, because it's going to be different across different countries, and we also need to consider that recycling food waste into something besides natural fuel production isn't exactly a great source of research funding so far.
I'm a type of anarchist, I don't believe a solarpunk future should have money. I think communities should primarily grow native crops in community and individual gardens, and trade internationally between foodbanks for the small amounts of overproduction each community might create. Honestly, the only reason we have plant fuels like corn ethanol is specifically because of overproduction. Any food waste produced in a solarpunk society should go to compost for the gardens.
How far towards multi culture farming would you think to be reasonable or good practice?
I'm not sure I understand your question. I think the rule of thumb would be about 6-7 different plants in each garden.