Geoff Lawton says grain is not really worth the while - what are your thoughts?

Ulla Bisgaard wrote:Why can’t you grow sweet potatoes in the same spot? We are in grow zone 10b, and treat the sweet potatoes as a self seeding crop.
I have grown mine in the same two raised beds for 6 years. I do a 2 year cycle for harvests. Let’s call my beds an and b.
The first year I only harvest from bed A,  but leave the smaller sweet potatoes in the soil. Then I plant beets, parsnips and leeks to grow during the cold season. Once springs come around, the small sweet potatoes I left, starts sprouting and puts out leaves. At this point I harvest the beets, but leave the leeks, as they deters the wildlife from eating the sweet potatoes.
The first year, I don’t harvest bed B. I just leave it alone until fall of the second year. The second year I harvest, but again leave the smallest of the sweet potatoes in the soil. The sweet potatoes have grown huge at this point, with many tubers at 5 pounds each. After the harvest, I grow  beets, diakon radishes and leeks for the cold season, until spring, when the small sweet potatoes set out leaves.
Using this method produces a lot of large sweet potatoes and other crops, without me having to deal with starting sweet potato slips every year. It also gives us access to sweet potato leaves all year round, though I never harvest more than 20%, since anything more will stunt the growth of the sweet potatoes.
I do top off the beds after harvesting, with compost, rabbit pellets, phosphorus and potassium.

This is brilliant, Ulla! Now, I'm wondering if there's a way I could do something similar, though in 6b, I'd have to do a very heavy layer of compost, to keep it warm enough, I think...

Nancy Reading wrote:

Thom Bri wrote:I am getting 50-60 bushel/acre using open-pollinated seed with no added fertilizer. Northern Illinois. Conventional ag can produce 200 bushel/acre of corn here.

Am I right thinking you get other crops from the same space though Thom, you have a three (plus) sisters plot going on?

Yes, I could intensify my corn plot and probably get a bunch more corn. But still nowhere near what modern hybrids produce.

Josh Warfield wrote:Saying flat out that grains aren't worth it is a little intense, compared to what Mr. Lawton actually said in the video. .

I went to watch the video, and you are absolutely right!



In the blurb under the video, it says this...

Key Takeaways

Grains easily fit in places like the deserts and cold climates where there is dormancy and time to process everything. Outside of these climates, grain is inefficient. There are a lot of easier foods to grow in terms of nutrition for the labor required. Grains are a high-quality food that stores, which was good for military needs and aided in the rise of grains agriculturally speaking.  However, usually, the amount of work necessary for the food gained just isn’t worth it. But, mass agriculture has thrived in the grain game because its production is easily industrialized: machine harvested, processed, stored, and shipped.

So somewhere that there is a dormant period, grains are good because you have the time to process the grain, and food to eat until dormancy is over.

Which isn't quite the same as saying that grain is not worth while.