Symbioculture uses a designed ecosystem of plants, animals, and fungi to maximize food output, eliminate environmental impact, connect biophysical and social flows, and create meaningful jobs. Fundamentally, it shiſts agriculture from the current practice of large, isolated monocultures, to distributed, localized polycultures. Such a transformation could reshape the structure of our cities, help localize our economies, and circularize the material flows of our societies. The Polydome model was the first applicaton of this agricultural approach to the conditions of a Dutch greenhouse. In our calculations based on the original Polydome model, we estimated that such a polyculture system could produce four times the financial yields of a typical greenhouse monoculture. This would result both from higher yields due to beneficial crop interactions as well as new options for direct sales to clients. The full Polydome model involves the implementation of many crops, fungi, aquaculture, insects, and livestock in one greenhouse. It is quite complex and involves some risk from the uncertainty of combining so many diverse elements at once. The potential benefits of this approach are, however, great enough that it merits further investigation and development. One of the least certain components of the original Polydome model are the recommended “crop clusters,” which allow crops to be placed in close proximity to one another in order to increase symbiotic interactions. There is a growing amount of research on the role of crop interactions on both yield and quality of produce. However, much of the existing information is also folkloric in nature. In designing the crop clusters recommended here we have gone through the existing scientific literature that uncovers the reason why these combinations work well, such as avoidance of root competition, pest repulsion, complementary crop maturity times, and other such factors. The three crops sets worked out in this report are designed to make optimal use of polyculture design principles to maximize the ecological and economic functioning of the system. Pagina 8
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