conclusion We believe that moving to polyculture greenhouse cultivation can have system-wide benefits for the human food production cycle. It can bring more profits directly to growers, supply a more consistent year-round labor cycle, and provide opportunities for connecting people with their food supply. If each greenhouse producer in the Netherlands catered to supplying the needs of 10.000 local customers rather than selling to a broad, distributed global chain of wholesalers, there would be a need for around 1.600 fruit and vegetable producing greenhouses in the Netherlands, each with the opportunity to earn at least 5 million euros in turnover from these local customers. Adding in livestock and fish production to create full “food-producing” ecosystems would make this production approach even more cost effective and profitable for growers. Though this end scenario is unlikely to ever be fully achieved, moving towards it from the current extreme focus on monoculture has many potential benefits. There also remain some significant challenges. CHALLENGES Current greenhouse locations Many greenhouse growers are located in relatively remote areas, far from population centers that they could readily sell to. Transporting their produce long distances to where it can be sold adds additional logistical complications and costs. Adopting a polyculture approach is therefore best suited to growers located close to more densely populated areas, or those with relatively easy access to those areas. Knowledge demands The knowledge required to transition to a multi-cropping solution is a high barrier. Most growers are extremely specialized in their understanding of a single crop, and shiſting to a polyculture approach represents, in many ways, a cultural shiſt. Marketing expertise Many growers do not have sufficient marketing expertise or enough time to develop it. Forming collectives of growers working towards local sales can be one way of overcoming this barrier. ADOPTING POLYCULTURE Moving to a polyculture approach to production is most likely to be achieved in two ways: › Old greenhouses can be repurposed directly for polyculture production at low capital investment. › Existing monoculture greenhouses can scale down some of their primary crop production and replace it with polyculture, using their newly diversified output to develop local markets. Simply adding in one or two crops to an existing system is unlikely to be sufficient for building out significant local sales channels and marketing. A local shop or vegetable package needs to have some amount of diversity before it becomes appealing to customers. TOWARDS THE FULL SYMBIOCULTURE VISION The greatest benefits of polyculture are to be found in a system that approaches more of the complete Symbioculture approach, as outlined in the original Polydome design. This includes livestock and aquaculture alongside crops. The waste flows between plants and animals can be connected, saving money on nutrient inputs and pest control. A move in this direction becomes more feasible once the first barriers of establishing multiple product streams for local sale are crossed. Pagina 58
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