#polyculture

I wanted and fully expected to find precisely the same Platonic french fry here in Nowhere, Idaho, that I'd had countless times at home and could expect to find anytime I wanted to in Tokyo, Paris, Beijing, Moscow, even Azerbaijan or the Isle of Man. What is that, if not a control thing? — and not just on the part of McDonald's. But whatever is behind it, this expectation can't be fulfilled unless McDonald's has seen to it that millions of acres of [Russet Burbank potatoes] are planted all over the world. The global desire can't be gratified without the global monoculture, and the global monoculture now depends on technologies like genetic engineering. It just may be that we can't have the one without the other.

This alignment of global desire and technology has been a great boon for the Russet Burbank, at least in terms of sheer numbers. Has there ever been a more successful potato in the history of the world? Yet its success is a precarious thing, for this particular set of potato genes (or rather now, potato genes plus one Bt gene and one antibiotic-resistance gene, courtesy of Monsanto) has also never been more vulnerable to the vicissitudes of nature or the fecklessness of a single species: us. Whether in evolutionary terms a monoculture really represents long-term success for a species is an open question. The Lumper, Ireland's favorite potato before the famine, was once nearly as dominant as the Russet Burbank; today, its genes are as hard to find as the dodo's.

Part of the pleasure those fries gave me was how perfectly they conformed to my image and expectation of them — to the Idea of Fries in my head, that is, an idea that McDonald's has successfully planted in the heads of a few billion other people around the world. Here, then, is a whole other meaning of the word monoculture. Like the agricultural practice that goes by that name, this one too — the monoculture of global taste — is about uniformity and control. Indeed, the monocultures of the field and the monocultures of our global economy nourish each other in crucial ways. The two are complexly intertwined expressions of the same Apollonian desire, our impulse, I mean, to elevate the universal over the particular or local, the abstract over the concrete, the ideal over the real, the made over the natural. The spirit of Apollo celebrates 'the One,' Plutarch wrote, 'denying the many and abjuring multiplicity.' Against Dionysus's 'variability' and 'wantonness' he poses the power of 'uniformity [and] orderliness.' Apollo is the god, then, of monoculture, whether of plants or of people. And though Apollo has surely had many more exalted manifestations than this one, he is here, too, in every bag of McDonald's french fries."

Syed Ghani Khan, a 7th-generation farmer from Mandya, Karnataka, is best known for conserving traditional rice varieties -- but his orchard tells another story. Scattered across his ancestral land are hundreds of mango trees, some of them believed to have been planted during Tipu Sultan’s reign in the late 18th century. These aren’t commercial hybrids -- they’re living archives of local biodiversity, each variety with its own shape, season, taste, and resilience.

Ghani Khan has catalogued and conserved over 120 traditional mango varieties, many of which are no longer found in mainstream markets. Some thrive in drought, others resist pests naturally -- traits that may become critical as climate change continues to disrupt weather cycles and food systems. In an age of monocultures and uniform produce, farmers like Ghani Khan are quietly safeguarding genetic diversity, one tree at a time. Their work isn’t just nostalgic -- it’s deeply strategic. Because the more diverse our food systems, the more resilient they become. In a warming world, preserving these ancient mangoes might be one of the smartest ways to future-proof our farms and our plates.

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“Compared to a large farm field of a single crop, an allotment plot or kitchen garden is a polyculture!”

Also known as intercropping, polyculture is the simultaneous cultivation of multiple diverse crops and animal species. Although this practice makes it more difficult to harvest a specific crop, it increases diversity, improves productivity, and creates a self-sustainable pest-management regime.

Indigenous peoples throughout North America cultivated different varieties of the Three Sisters, adapted to varying local environments. The individual crops and their use in polyculture originated in Mesoamerica, where squash was domesticated first, followed by maize and then beans, over a period of 5,000–6,500 years.

European records from the sixteenth century describe highly productive Indigenous agriculture based on cultivation of the Three Sisters throughout what are now the Eastern United States and Canada, where the crops were used for both food and trade. Geographer Carl O. Sauer described the Three Sisters as "a symbiotic plant complex of North and Central America without an equal elsewhere".

Polyculture offers multiple advantages, including increasing total yield, as multiple crops can be harvested from the same land, along with reduced risk of crop failure. Resources are used more efficiently, requiring less inputs of fertilizers and pesticides, as interplanted crops suppress weeds, and legumes can fix nitrogen. The increased diversity tends to reduce losses from pests and diseases.

Polyculture can yield multiple harvests per year, and can improve the physical, chemical and structural properties of soil, for example as taproots create pores for water and air. Improved soil cover reduces soil drying and erosion. Further, increased diversity of crops can provide people with a healthier diet.

Once established, polyculture is pretty much self-sustainable, but the planning process can be challenging if you want to grow a great variety of crops. Other issues can include things like:

Intercropping requires knowledge of plant families and their needs

Planning process can be complicated

Planting and harvesting processes are more time-consuming

Individual crop yields are often lower than in a monoculture

“For the past two centuries, local Ixcatec people in the southern state of Oaxaca have made a living producing mezcal, a liquor which, like tequila, is derived from the fermented juices of ripe agave cores...

But with the skyrocketing global popularity of mezcal, planting, collecting and producing mezcal has boomed across the country. In 2021, the country produced more than 8 million liters of certified mezcal, an approximate 700% increase from ten years ago. Most of this mezcal, about five million liters per year, is designated for international markets... In Oaxaca alone, where 85% of mezcal is produced, 25,000 families rely on its production for at least part of their livelihoods.

To meet the global demand, producers in various states of Mexico are over-harvesting wild agave and expanding monoculture plantations. According to Alfonso Valiente, an ecologist at the Institute of Ecology at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, this is putting pressure on local ecosystems by shrinking the genetic diversity of agave, threatening bats reliant on the succulent species and increasing deforestation...

Valiente and a team of over sixty scientists backed by their respective universities are running a research project across five states in Mexico along with local producers. This collaboration between researchers and farmers started in San Juan Raya, another village in the biosphere reserve...

Incubating a sustainable plantation

In San Juan Raya, Valiente and other scientists hope their research project will inform sustainable plantations in the region by using agroecological systems.

Eight years ago, they first established a nursery surrounded by mesh to ensure the survival of the seedlings from predators. Planted in rows are now about 45,000 young agave plants, the two native species of this place, Agave Potatorum and Agave Marmorata.

Unlike monoculture plantations, where plants reproduce by shoots (small plants that are born at the base of the stems), which are replicas of the main plant, community members here collect the seeds. One agave usually produces thousands of seeds. They plant them in the shade for protection during their first years...

Pictured: In the nursery in San Juan Raya, thousands of little agave plants are covered from the beaten sun.

As the sun sets on the peaks of the hills and canyons of the reserve, Alfonso Valiente guides us through one of two plots in their plantation designated to grow. As of last December, about 8,000 agave plants have been transplanted. Approximately 2,300 of them are marked with numbers to observe which other plants support the growth of transplanted agave.

“What we have noticed until now is that if you plant agave where there is an empty space and no supportive plants around, it dies more easily,” Valiente explains. “Agave grows better if the surrounding plants are genetically diverse.”

According to the latest research, the best plants to plant agave around are legume shrubs, such as e.g. Mimosa Luisana, a nitrogen-fixing plant that supports nitrogen in soil with the help of bacteria...

Pictured: In the agroecological system, agave grows alongside columnar cacti, legume shrubs, succulents and other native agave species.

In agreement with communities that participate across Mexico, up to 30% of the agave plants will be left in the polyculture plantations to nourish bats and other animals dependent on the nectar and pollen of the agave flowers. The other 70% will be sold for mezcal production.

However, as this is a long-term project without immediate economic returns, this also makes a lot of local producers, like those in Santa María Ixcatlán, reluctant to embark on the project.

In San Juan Raya, they still need to wait at least two more years for the agave to mature...

Plantations similar to the ones in San Juan Raya are being prepared in Guerrero, Tamaulipas, and Sonora. Valiente and other scientists are now campaigning in Oaxaca to get more communities involved in their project...

In various Mexican states, mezcal producers have also been searching for solutions to protect ecosystems as the demand for local liquors is growing. In Oaxaca, Guerrero, or even Jalisco—a state famous for its tequila production—some families and companies are exploring the management of agave in forests and ways to protect landscapes where it grows.”

I’ve been researching and experimenting on polyculture gardening for a couple of seasons and I can see that it works very well! There are more pollinators and beneficial insects as well as birds in the garden now. It’s hard to see things change in one season, it takes time for living beings to adapt to your garden.

It’s a known fact that if you grow one kind of plant in neat rows, once pests will discover them there’s no chance that you’ll get rid of them (unless you use heavy chemical pesticides which are harmful for both humans and other living beings) .

But If you plant different kinds of companion plants together some of them will distract pests, some of them will attract predator insects and everyone will be happy!

We made a little video showing the different vegetables in one of our vegetable beds and I wrote down some explanation about each plant below. I hope you’ll find it helpful!

Avocado

Two avocado trees sprouted 2 years ago from vegetable scraps that I’ve buried in there and have been growing ever since. They endured frost, snow and heavy winds. There are two walls close to them which keeps them warm, and a very tall Himalayan Cedar tree on top of them that protects them from heavy rains and snow.

Mint

I planted mint to confuse pests with its smell and attract beneficial insects. It’s a wonderful hardy plant which has many culinary and medicinal uses. It just has to be kept in control, otherwise it will spread all over the bed. The best way to do it is to prune the spreading branches and air dry them for later culinary uses.

Tomatoes

Tomatoes are the stars of the summer vegetable garden! I love both growing and eating them!

I think of them as the main element of the garden bed and disperse the other plants around it.

Zucchini and Patty Pan Squash

I interplanted tomatoes with zucchini so they will shade the ground below, creating a living mulch. I used two varieties with the risk of being cross pollinated but so far so good!

Pumpkin

It makes a wonderful groundcover and provides amazing food for winter!

Fennel

Everyone says fennel stunts the growth of other vegetables around it, but I don’t think it’s true!

This one has been in the same spot for almost 3 years and tomatoes don’t seem to mind it!

Fennel is a perennial herb that I use fresh in salads, stir fries, pastas and so on! I also collect its seeds to use in herbal teas and savory cakes . The larvae of anise swallowtail butterfly feed on it and it’s an aphid trap!

Calendula

Ever since I first sowed calendula seeds in the garden they kept self seeding and flowering all year long! They are a good aphid trap , beneficial insect and pollinator attractor and they deter nematodes. In the beginning of spring they were about to take over the vegetable bed, so I pruned them heavily and lay them as mulch.They decomposed quickly, providing nutrients for the soil.

The flowers are medicinal, an infused oil made with them heals wounds, rashes and insect bites. I collect them all year long and dry them for later use.

Mallow

Mallow is a volunteer in the garden bed. It attracts pollinators such as bees, butterflies and hoverflies. It’s perennial and has beautiful flowers. Both flowers and leaves are highly medicinal, used in many different cultures for healing wounds, toothaches, joint pains and so on. It’s a hardy plant with edible leaves that are similar to spinach in taste.

Marigold

The most well known and used companion plant for tomatoes is marigold. It’s easy to grow and has beautiful flowers that attract beneficial insects such as hoverflies, ladybugs, lacewings and parasitic wasps. Where ever I planted a tomato, I planted a marigold.

Oh it’s also a dye plant that gives yellow color!

Sunchokes

On the outer edge of the bed I planted sunchokes. They grow tall and create a living fence. I had five kittens last year and I had to discourage them from using my veggie bed as toilet! So I went out and got a kilo of them from the farmer’s market and planted them in last year’s spring. They grew very tall and made the living fence that I imagined!

We harvested lots of them in October through December and left some in the ground for this year. They all sprouted towards the end of May. In fact too many of them sprouted, so I thinned them by moving them to the empty spots in the garden (you can read about it here ) .

Borage

I read about borage and its benefits so much that this year I decided to plant some! The seeds sprout easily in early spring but slugs love them and it’s a little hard to protect them . One day the seedlings are great with large leaves, next day they’re totally eaten! From the 5-6 seedlings only 3 remained and they’re flowering now!

It attracts pollinators, deters pests and adds trace minerals to the soil plus the leaves and flowers are edible!   I’m hoping for it to self seed and remain in the garden forever!

Cucumber

As the sunchokes grow very tall, I planted cucumbers next to them so they can climb on it.

Beans

They provide nitrogen to the soil, so I planted climbing ones next to sunchokes and some bush types next to tomatoes.

Basil

Even though they are not seen on the video, I planted red and regular basil in the empty spots next to tomatoes. They deter pests with their smell and I heard that they make tomatoes taste better! I also like them a lot in salads and  pasta sauces. Such a fresh taste!

Catnip (Nepeta cataria)

It’s a hardy perennial herb that attracts beneficial insects. Its tiny flowers attracts all kinds of bees.It self seeds and you can remove the seedlings to next to fruit trees or other empty spots in the garden.

We add it to our herbal tea blends all year long. It aids digestion, is mildly sedative and tastes great!  As with cats…some love them and some ignore them. Only 2 out of 5 kittens in our garden liked it.

Conventional Monoculture VS Holistic Polyculture