Why Perennials?

Monoculture

Most of the world's commercial cereal and vegetable crops are annuals, grown in a monoculture system. Let us take wheat as an example. The ground needs to be cultivated every year to prepare for the next crop. Consider the application of herbicides, fertilisers and pesticides to produce a good crop yield. Furthermore, large machinery harvests the crop.

Compare this inordinate workload to grow and produce an annual food crop. This also equates to working for the chemical companies.

Consider annual monocultures harmful to the environment. Continuous cultivation of the soil destroys organic material and soil microorganisms and leaves the soil susceptible to wind and water erosion. The soil structure deteriorates and becomes compacted.

All of the plants in a monoculture field have the same nutritional needs. Roots dwell in the same soil depth and receive nutrients from this same level. Any nutrients washed down below this root zone eventually ends up polluting underground water.

Consider these plants to be similar genetically and to the same climate and pest and diseases. Monoculture is dependant on pesticides, herbicides and chemical fertilisers.

Grain yields have increased from 1 to 3 tons per acre over the last 100 years. This cannot be sustained. The cost of producing these crops keeps on increasing. Consider a higher energy output.

Biodiversity

The greater the diversity of plants growing in an area, the greater the growth. Thus a forest of perennials has greater biodiversity, is self-sustaining and more productive. Unlike in a monoculture, the soil fertility is kept naturally high.

Grow a wide diverse of many species and insect pests become confused in trying to seek out a certain plant. Compare this to a field of grain where the pests do not have any trouble in distinguishing the plants.

You can plan a forest using the instructions that nature has provided, using delicious fruits, seeds, leaves, roots and flowers. A well structured system can

1. increase productivity.

2. produce a great diversity of food.

3. be easier to work.

4. need fewer inputs and be largely self-sustaining.

5. provide a home for wildlife.

Historic Changes

Consider that people selectively bred our traditional crops over thousands of years. In that time the crops have changed enormously from their wild inedible origins. A more edible pleasant tasting plant is produced. Disadvantages include a higher susceptibility to pests and diseases and a process of up to 10 crops annually. This means continuous cultivation, weeding and watering. Even will all this, the bred plant is lower in nutrition than the original wild plant.

Most old world perennial plants have never been bred for their particular traits, thus expect to harvest less from each individual plant. With a little care you can pick tasty species, that will continue to produce for a long period. They will require less maintenance and overall will produce more per given area than traditional cropping.