Intercropping, yes. One type of which is called Three Sisters, where you grow corn, climbing beans and squash together.
It is of course harder to do on industrial scale, but it probably beats doing row monocrops on your backyard.
It is of course harder to do on industrial scale, but it probably beats doing row monocrops on your backyard.
https://growingfruit.org/t/3-sisters-the-original-survival-f...
"This story is an exaggeration which has been further glamorized by plant sellers and periodicals that cater to advertisers of natural or organic seeds and other products. In reality the practice was not widespread. The Farmer’s Almanac is rarely a source of factual information." - Richard
"Three sisters is a very inefficient way to grow corn. It is not the way many Amerindian tribes grew their corn as shown by the fields of corn grown by the 5 tribes of the Iroquois. It was used by some tribes, but only if they had corn, beans, and squash adapted to the growing method." - Fusion_power
Fusion_power usually knows what he is talking about, I recognize his name from Tomatoville where he is one of the best scientific posters and farmers around.
I've long assumed that that's what is happening. Also, you can't just throw all three seeds in a hole and call it done, you have to start the corn and then later start the squash and then later start the beans. It's a whole process. It probably works in specific conditions, but in general normal yearly crop rotation to replenish nutrients with things grown in correctly spaced rows and such is likely to work better and be more labor efficient.
That isn't to say the idea is always bad, in some cases it can be good. You need to be careful as what seems good might have significant downsides that are hidden.
I'm very encouraged that we're discussing more than just maximizing yield. A luxury that the Green Revolution brought us. Huh, I hadn't thought of "permaculture" as a post-Green Revolution worldview before.