Actually, the Chinese, who naturally have serious concerns about feeding a billion+ people, have been looking at this for a while. They actually had some fairl

Actually, the Chinese, who naturally have serious concerns about feeding a billion+ people, have been looking at this for a while. They actually had some fairly promising results for test farms and plots. However, its still pretty small scale by industrial standards. Official paper: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v406/n6797/abs/406718a0.html http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v406/n6797/abs/406718a0... Full text alt: http://www.mindfully.org/GE/Rice-Diversity-Yield.htm http://www.mindfully.org/GE/Rice-Diversity-Yield.htm Polyculture ag. production's not a bad idea, and it obviously can improve yields under the right conditions, but to be widely adopted it either needs top down advocacy from a larger body (Gov) or be so compelling economically that individuals / companies push for and adopt it at the personal level. Yields are one thing, but there is also the additional logistical difficulty, and cost, that comes from planting many different crops. Particularly tough when you're talking about some midwest, intensive crop farming, where machinery, layouts, and storage have been designed and optimized for monoculture operations over literally millions of acres. Adapting those operations while maintaining economies of scale is one of the greatest hurdles. Also, while folks sometimes decry our farming, America isn't as bad as we often make it out to be, and many areas do significantly mix crops. Example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Crops_Kansas_AST_20010624.jpg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Crops_Kansas_AST_20010624.... Shows fields of wheat, sorghum, corn, and sections left fallow that are fairly well mixed in Kansas.