February 5, 2019
Modern agriculture’s large monoculture fields grow a lot of corn and soybeans, planted annually. The outputs from row crops can be measured both in dollars paid in the market and also in non-market costs, known as externalities. Soil, nutrients, groundwater, pollinators, wildlife diversity, and habitat (among other things) can be lost when crop yields are maximized.
Prairie strips are composed of a diverse plant community and can be designed to provide an abundance of flowers blooming from early spring through late fall. This is crucial to conserving pollinators and other beneficial insects.
Now it appears that prairie strips have an extraordinary power to change this pattern.