CONTEMPORARY
that they would clear
large pieces of land by
burning it down and then
plant agriculture and
move on to the next land.
This was not sustainable,
so again they made a
change. They adopted
small scale, permaculture,
multi-tier systems where
they planted plants in
combination with each
other. The modern
understanding of this is
called companion
planting. This style of
planting not only gives
small communitie spieces
of land, but it also
provides year-round
harvest opportunities.The
chiefs realized that there
would be a limit to the
ability of the island to
support their population,
so by making these two
key decisions they
avoided ruining and
putting stress on the
environment. And they
made these changes
thousands of years ago!
To this day, there are
1,100 people still living on
the island with complete
access to food and
security. Had those chiefs
not made those decisions
it could have been a very
different story
by FOOD MATTERS
Author: James Colquhoun