 Monocultures cover about 80% of all arable land. This means that on most farmland, just one crop is grown at a time. While monocultures were once believed to be the most efficient way to produce enough food, they are not the silver bullet solution we had hoped for. So what new challenges have monoculture production left us with? And is there an alternative? According to some experts, growing food in monocultures is risky for farmers and threatens food security. Imagine packing a bus full of people and one of them has the flu. There's a good chance that the virus is going to spread. It's the same with farming. If you densely pack a single species into the same space, pests and diseases can thrive. Farmers then have to invest in more technology or inputs like pesticides to protect their harvest, which cuts into their profit margins and can have a negative impact on soil fertility, human health and the natural environment. In recent decades, the risk of monoculture production has only been compounded by our focus on growing far fewer varieties of food. For example, there are more than 1,000 different banana species, but almost all bananas imported into the USA and Europe are a single kind, the cavendish. This reliance on a single variety can make our food systems even more vulnerable if a particular variety can't cope with a changing climate, disease or pest species. So what's the solution? Polyculture means raising more than one species of crop or animal at a time. These systems are producing an abundance of food around the globe and have been doing so for millennia. Instead of an income stream dependent on one crop, producers practicing polyculture have the safety net of multiple income streams from different crops and livestock. But the benefits of polycultures are not just financial. They can also produce high food yields and support a wide range of biodiversity. For example, it takes nearly twice as much land to grow squash, corn and beans separately rather than growing them together, a technique developed by Indigenous peoples of America known as the Three Sisters. And this isn't an anomaly. Polycultures mimic the diversity found in nature and are therefore more resilient to pests, disease and even drought. For example, diverse planting attracts a range of insects, including predatory species that hunt and eat common pests. By working in symbiosis with nature, polycultures can also keep soils productive long term, ensuring food security for the future. Why aren't we using polyculture more? Polycultures can require more hands-on management than monocultures, especially if crops mature at different times. But there are often simple ways to help keep on top of things, such as using livestock to graze nitrogen-fixing crops instead of cutting them manually. There is no single solution to the social and environmental problems in our food system. But choosing to grow more polycultures certainly has a role in ecologically regenerative and economically sustainable agriculture. Subscribe to Food Unfolded to learn more about the origins and sustainability of your food.