Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

dontpet t1_j5bvffo wrote

Could you cite source for your claim? The wiki article included only a positive affirmation of the approach. "Food Yields and Nutrient Analyses of the Three Sisters: A Haudenosaunee Cropping System"

5

Busterlimes t1_j5ca6b9 wrote

I think it was MSU that did a study with field crops gaining water retention and nutrient retention by taking 10% of the farmland to grow indigenous plants and flowers. Monocultures are terrible and less efficient in the long run if you aren't looking at a pure profit motive.

8

RobfromHB t1_j5f1oqk wrote

We can prove it with some light math. 20 lbs protein per bushel and the average yield for top ~15 states is about 50 bushels per acre. Converting that to kg protein per ha: 20x2.2x50x2.5 = 5,500 kg of protein per hectare using straight soy. That's more that 10x higher than the research mentioned in that article. The main reason for their result is the horrendously low yield on their control group.

https://ussec.org/resources/conversion-table/

1

Aardark235 t1_j5ickug wrote

Divide by 2.2 instead of multiplying. Gives 1100 kg of protein per hectare. Article is off by a factor of two. Not surprising for this kind of “study”.

1

RobfromHB t1_j5jmxnb wrote

Shame on me. I'd like to blame being on a phone for that, but I'll eat it. Thanks for the correction and pointing out it's still reasonably higher.

1

Aardark235 t1_j5joo9j wrote

It happens. Root cause is the world (USA) should move on from pounds and switch to SI. I am so tired from the headaches these dual systems create.

1