5 ms·

But do they have to be deserts? Couldn't some kind of cover crop be useful both in terms of bee-feeding and in terms of reducing leeching of soil nutrients?

• spraak 8y ago
  I think that's a great idea, but seems conflicting to the mindset that the almond farmers have (and most conventional farmers). That is, that's a more whole system mindset (see also permaculture) where farmers growing acres upon acres of just one crop (almonds, corn, soy) see it as discrete and disconnected from other crops and resources.
  • jimnotgym 8y ago
    In the EU farmers are paid to leave wildlife-strips and beetle-banks in their fields. The almond mono-culture I saw on the Netflix series mentioned was shocking to me. It looks like one big drought could turn it into a dust bowl! Land is almost never left as bare soil in Britain due to our wet climate. However before the EU paid for it, and rules were put in to stop removal of hedgerows, the UK was being carved into larger and larger fields of mono-culture cereals.
    • spraak 8y ago
      Ah that's very interesting! You might find Bill Mollison's "Global Gardener" series interesting.