Our world is increasingly vulnerable to environmental collapse. To ensure continued abundance in natural resources, we as a country must prioritize sustainable cultivation and natural conservation. 

Plant cultivation: 

One stressor on the natural environment is excessive imbalance caused by large concentrations of unfixed nitrogen (usually brought on by fertilizers), which can cause an imbalance in the soil microbiome by killing off beneficial bacteria, or cause aquatic dead zones downstream. With low quality soil and fewer fish in local bays and lakes, each season will be more difficult to draw a yield from, slowly sinking our nation into a barren state of starvation. Plant waste should be composted to increase soil fertility and reduce nutrient waste.

Another threat to our ecology is monoculture, “the cultivation or growth of a single crop or organism especially on agricultural or forest land”. Monoculture causes even more imbalances. The first of which is the aforementioned excess of unfixed nitrogen. The second being a decrease in pollinator populations. Pollinators are essential to our ecosystem, they are the reason we have all of the natural resources we have today. Pollinators are “anything that helps carry pollen from the male part of the flower (stamen) to the female part of the same or another flower (stigma).” This process is necessary for “more than 80 percent of the world’s flowering plants.” Thirdly, monoculture farms deplete the soil in such a way that it becomes a desert. 

Water usage is also much higher than necessary. Non-native plants often require more water than the local climate can provide, prompting farmers to irrigate their crops – thus decreasing the functional diversity of the soil, and wasting water in the process. Irrigation should be low-power and work beneficially within the watershed.

So what’s the alternative? How do we feed our people while maintaining a balanced ecosystem and reversing our contribution to the climate crisis? 

Well, the opposite of monoculture is polyculture. This method of cultivation is best implemented via permaculture principles. Permaculture, although the term itself was coined in the 1970s, is a science we can attribute to many indigenous societies across the world. An example is the prescribed burnings of underbrush to rejuvenate the soil and prevent wildfires – used by the Chumash, Yurok, Karuk, Hupa, and Miwok tribes of Turtle Island for over 13,000 years. Indigenous knowledge has an important place in ecology science.

One important part of permaculture farming is effective companion planting, “the practice of growing certain crops near each other and keeping others separated so that they all thrive.” Companion plants trade nutrients, feeding off of each other’s strengths and weaknesses for mutual benefit – and an abundant harvest. Because the crops form a symbiotic trade of nutrients, the soil requires less amendments and remains fertile for longer. There are also many ways to leverage companion planting to minimize the impact of pests, weeds, and disease. 

Another benefit of permaculture farming when done on a larger scale is more efficient use of resources. We can save water via the use of vertical farming, which does have its limitations. An alternative is native plants. We can limit or completely eliminate the use of fertilizers and pesticides and still have a large healthy harvest.