Sustainable Agriculture: Nutrition of Indigenous American 3 Sisters Garden Compared to Monoculture Corn Production and a Cool Old Squash

Abstract

Balancing productivity, profitability, human health, and environmental health is a key challenge for agricultural sustainability. After WW2, however, U.S. government agricultural subsidies have created cheap corn that the processed food industry has infused into virtually every aspect of the American diet. As a result, rates of diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, kidney disease, obesity, and metabolic syndrome have increased significantly in the past forty years, especially among low socio-economic groups and non-Western peoples, due to the low cost of processed foods. Additionally, industrial monoculture corn production depletes soil nutrients and increases weeds and insects, requiring fertilizer and pesticide inputs that contaminant water, reduce biodiversity, and contribute to eutrophication. Multi-cropping, in particular growing corn, squash, and legumes in an Indigenous American Three Sisters garden provides significantly improved nutrition per mass of plant compared to corn. Squash is very high in carotenoids that have been shown to reduce rates of chronic diseases, such as cancers, diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease. It also promotes eye health and improves immune function. Agricultural practices of multi-cropping also replenish soil nutrients and suppress weeds and insects, requiring fewer fertilizer and pesticide inputs. Finally, in an exciting opportunity, the ancient Indigenous American squash Gete Okosomin, “Cool old squash,” was grown and a complete nutritional analysis was obtained and compared to common modern squashes. Different stories of its origin are also discussed.