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Crop choices: Difference between revisions
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This would require more [[shipping]] as food would be less local. But still, overall carbon emissions would probably be '''lower''', because of all the deforestation prevented (see above). Keep in mind that ''food transport'' is only a small percent of food's environmental footprint. And it could be smaller still if foods are ''processed'' locally and shipped in their more concentrated forms. | This would require more [[shipping]] as food would be less local. But still, overall carbon emissions would probably be '''lower''', because of all the deforestation prevented (see above). Keep in mind that ''food transport'' is only a small percent of food's environmental footprint. And it could be smaller still if foods are ''processed'' locally and shipped in their more concentrated forms. | ||
==More considerations== | |||
====Monoculture vs polyculture==== | |||
Be careful not to interperet these results as "This one crop is the best, let's just grow that and nothing else!" It could be that some crops [[companion planting|depend on each other]] for their high yields. I recommend growing ''a mix of'' top crops, and especially include [[legumes]] for [[nitrogen fixing]]. | |||
====Local variation==== | |||
If a country is geographically big enough, different parts probably have different top-yielding crops (due to different soil/climate/etc). The current dataset doesn't have any info on this - crop yields are only a country-level average. | |||
====Social, economic, and technological factors==== | |||
Perhaps in some cases, it's not that the top-yielding crop is actually ''better-suited'' for the local region - perhaps it just has more resources invested into it. Maybe it happens to be grown by richer people/corporations which have more access to [[fertilizer]] etc. In which case, some currently-less-productive crops could be just as good if given a chance. The current dataset has no info on this. | |||
==See also== | ==See also== | ||
* [[Food]] - the main page which includes other possible ways to improve the global food supply. | * [[Food]] - the main page which includes other possible ways to improve the global food supply. | ||