A new look at crop rotation could cut energy use for agriculture
Conventional
grain-growing methods require large amounts of fossil fuel. Researchers
say that a more complex crop rotation could be the energy-saving
answer. Photograph by John Stanmeyer, VII/National Geographic
How much fuel went into producing the food on your plate? Chances
are, it was a lot more energy than you will ever get out of eating that
meal.
By some estimates, it takes about 10 calories of fossil
fuels to get each calorie of food from farm to fork in the American
food system. But it doesn’t have to be that way, according to a study
published Monday in the May/June edition of Agronomy Journal.
Farmers
can slash their fossil fuel use, while still growing bumper crops and
turning a profit—all with the help of a little more crop rotation,
concluded the team of researchers from Iowa State University after a
six-year study.
In tests on a research farm in Iowa, the team
mixed oats, alfalfa, and other crops into the rotation along with corn
and soybeans, the two mainstays of the U.S. Corn Belt. Read More