Agroforestry

In the Caribbean, the urban heat island effect can exacerbate the already hot and humid climate, leading to increased energy consumption for air conditioning and negative impacts on human health, particularly for vulnerable populations such as the elderly and those with pre-existing health conditions. Moreover, higher temperatures can also have detrimental effects on local ecosystems, water resources, and air quality.

Both edible and non-edible plants grow naturally throughout a forest often creating symbiotic relationships that enhance plant health. This environment can be artificially created to grow endangered or preferred tree species with popular vegetable and herb plants in a specialized nursery.

Feed An Island agroforestry system grows tree seedlings to a height of 15-feet, which means these trees will create an instant forest wherever they are transplanted. Each year in the nursery, various vegetables can be grown selected by cultural preference, which provides employment, income, education, and food security. Trees can be fruit bearing, providing sustenance and income while they grow on site.

Forests on their own provide for at least a level of biodiversity, even in newly planted tree stands. Many species of birds will thrive in the tree canopy, and on the forest floor, a natural “green manure” is created each year from tree leaves that fall to the ground, which creates an environment for fungi and small creatures that feed on the decaying material. Over-time, non-woody plants germinate from this nutrient rich layer of material to create an under storied ecosystem beneath the tree canopy. Small animals will eventually inhabit the new ecosystem; larger animals like deer and elk soon follow soon after transplant. A diversified ecosystem will have been created in just a few short years, one that will feed and enrich the soil, purify, and conserve water and cool the air as a hedge against global warming and the effects of climate change.

The Feed An island agroforestry system have the added benefit of providing compost material as a soil additive (tree leaf, fruit and plant waste), which can be used to replace man-made fertilizers to augment and improve soil for growing edible plants year-to-year.

In the industrialized west, agroforestry is in its infancy, however in some tropical areas of the world landowners have been growing trees and agricultural crops together for generations. In Latin America for example, coffee plants needed to be cultivated under the shade of trees but in the 1960’s new plant breeds were introduced to the region that could grow in full sun. It soon became apparent that without shade, the new coffee plants required expensive, frequent fertilizing and became susceptible to all kinds of pests. Productivity and profit were also lower. Today, most of these new sun coffee plantations have been abandoned and the land returned to its natural state. Agroforestry would have been the answer for these Latin American growers.

In the UK, tree farmers are experimenting with intercropping more traditional agricultural crops with trees. Many types of vegetables can be incorporated throughout a tree grove, particularly when trees are young, and the plant canopy hasn’t entirely blocked out the sun. Most types of pole bean and pea plants will climb the trunk and branches of a young tree. Melons and squash of all types can be planted at the center point between each row of trees. Raspberries, blackberries, and currants will thrive between tree rows even as the canopy develops and creates more shade. Many herbs grow well in the acidic soil of a forest floor including parsley, cilantro, basil, mint, and rosemary.

In Asia, mushrooms are cultivated in stacked logs spread under the canopy of a living forest. Some of the most expensive and prized mushrooms are cultured using agroforestry practices.

Feed An Island offers a new system that grows trees and food together starting with a blank canvas, land that is clear of plant matter, ready to mold into a high-production agroforestry site.

Agriculturalists believe that agroforestry could combat climate change. An edible forest floor landscape would add to the carbon sequestration of a forest and forest floor plants would “feed on” decaying wood, leaf and plant other matter preventing released carbon from escaping into the atmosphere. An agroforestry landscape also drops the ambient temperature outside the forest by several degrees diminishing the “heat island” effect of global warming. With proper plant selection, an acre of food produced by an agroforestry half acre can match the production of an open field acre. A million agroforestry acres could produce 5 million pounds of food and feed hundreds of thousands of people worldwide.

A forest floor covered with edible plant cover saves a tremendous amount of water; as much as 50% of the water used to grow a rowed tree plantation or an open field farm, which makes agroforestry a must for water challenged areas of the world like the Caribbean islands.

Feed An island agroforestry can be utilized to grow specific plants, including threatened and endangered trees and other rare plant species. African Black Ebony for example, is on the verge of extinction. The nursery could grow thousands of these trees in the protected environment of the system. Endangered soft tissue plants can be grown along with the trees. Plants could be left to grow for years until they bear seed, which can be stored or planted for future generations.