"Rotating crops helps some, doesn't fix the whole problem because there's some things that almost every crop takes from the soil. How much is it helping? Feed your rotated fast-grown crops and non-rotated fast-grown crops and slowly grown crops to mice, or other animals that grow in even faster generations, and see how the three groups relative to each other. Keep your eyes open, don't wait for problems to materialize before you start looking, imagine things that might go wrong and look for them early, maybe you'll catch something you didn't imagine while you're looking for some possible problem you did imagine, the important thing is to keep your eyes open wider."
"Besides soil depletion if you figure out how to grow more crops faster, there's one other problem that's very predictable, and it leads into another one of those larger points so we might as well talk about it early. Suppose you find a single field of corn, all looking like one strain, that's the best corn you've ever seen. It grows fast, it's resistant to disease and insects and strong winds, it's tastier than the previous corn, you feed it to mice and the mice do fine. You find - well, you don't have Keepers - you find somebody reliable to verify your reports, and you take that corn strain and sell it to farmers all over Cheliax. A year later, it's the most profitable corn anyone has ever seen, and only a complete fool of a farmer would grow anything else the next year. Two years later, it's the only strain of corn that anyone still grows in Cheliax, and it's starting to displace other crops that are less profitable to grow. All massively replicated out of that one original field."
"Rotating crops helps some, doesn't fix the whole problem because there's some things that almost every crop takes from the soil. How much is it helping? Feed your rotated fast-grown crops and non-rotated fast-grown crops and slowly grown crops to mice, or other animals that grow in even faster generations, and see how the three groups relative to each other. Keep your eyes open, don't wait for problems to materialize before you start looking, imagine things that might go wrong and look for them early, maybe you'll catch something you didn't imagine while you're looking for some possible problem you did imagine, the important thing is to keep your eyes open wider."
"Besides soil depletion if you figure out how to grow more crops faster, there's one other problem that's very predictable, that happens because of how well you succeeded at plant breeding, and it leads into another one of those larger points. Suppose you produce a single field of corn, all of one strain, that's the best corn you've ever seen. It grows fast, it's resistant to disease and insects and strong winds, it's tastier than the previous corn, you feed it to mice and the mice do fine. You find - well, you don't have Keepers - you find somebody reliable to verify your reports, and you take that corn strain and sell it to farmers all over Cheliax. A year later, it's the most profitable corn anyone has ever seen, and only a complete fool of a farmer would grow anything else the next year. Two years later, it's the only strain of corn that anyone still grows in Cheliax, and it's starting to displace other crops that are less profitable to grow. All massively replicated out of that one original field."
"Rotating crops helps some, doesn't fix the whole problem because there's some things that almost every crop takes from the soil. How much is it helping? Feed your rotated fast-grown crops and non-rotated fast-grown crops and slowly grown crops to mice, or other animals that grow in even faster generations, and see how the three groups do health-wise relative to each other. Keep your eyes open, don't wait for problems to materialize before you start looking, imagine things that might go wrong and look for them early, maybe you'll catch something you didn't imagine while you're looking for some possible problem you did imagine, the important thing is to keep your eyes open wider."
"Besides soil depletion if you figure out how to grow more crops faster, there's one other problem that's very predictable, that happens because of how well you succeeded at plant breeding, and it leads into another one of those larger points. Suppose you produce a single field of corn, all of one strain, that's the best corn you've ever seen. It grows fast, it's resistant to disease and insects and strong winds, it's tastier than the previous corn, you feed it to mice and the mice do fine. You find - well, you don't have Keepers - you find somebody reliable to verify your reports, and you take that corn strain and sell it to farmers all over Cheliax. A year later, it's the most profitable corn anyone has ever seen, and only a complete fool of a farmer would grow anything else the next year. Two years later, it's the only strain of corn that anyone still grows in Cheliax, and it's starting to displace other crops that are less profitable to grow. All massively replicated out of that one original field."
"Rotating crops helps some, doesn't fix the whole problem because there's some things that almost every crop takes from the soil. How much is it helping? Feed your rotated fast-grown crops and non-rotated fast-grown crops and slowly grown crops to mice, or other animals that grow in even faster generations, and see how the three groups do health-wise relative to each other. Keep your eyes open, don't wait for problems to materialize before you start looking, imagine things that might go wrong and look for them early, maybe you'll catch something you didn't imagine while you're looking for some possible problem you did imagine, the important thing is to keep your eyes open wider."
"Besides soil depletion if you figure out how to grow more crops faster, there's one other problem that's very predictable, that happens because of how well you succeeded at plant breeding, and it leads into another one of those larger points. Suppose you produce a single field of corn, all of one strain, that's the best corn you've ever seen. It grows fast, it's resistant to disease and insects and strong winds, it's tastier than the previous corn, you feed it to mice and the mice do fine. You find - well, you don't have replicators - you find somebody reliable to verify your reports, and you take that corn strain and sell it to farmers all over Cheliax. A year later, it's the most profitable corn anyone has ever seen, and only a complete fool of a farmer would grow anything else the next year. Two years later, it's the only strain of corn that anyone still grows in Cheliax, and it's starting to displace other crops that are less profitable to grow. All massively replicated out of that one original field."
"Rotating crops helps some, doesn't fix the whole problem because there's some things that almost every crop takes from the soil. How much is it helping? Feed your rotated fast-grown crops and non-rotated fast-grown crops and slowly grown crops to mice, or other animals that grow in even faster generations, and see how the three groups do health-wise relative to each other. Keep your eyes open, don't wait for problems to materialize before you start looking, imagine things that might go wrong and look for them early, maybe you'll catch something you didn't imagine while you're looking for some possible problem you did imagine, the important thing is to keep your eyes open wider."
"Besides soil depletion if you figure out how to grow more crops faster, there's one other problem that's very predictable, that happens because of how well you succeeded at plant breeding, and it leads into another one of those larger points. Suppose you produce a single field of corn, all of one strain, that's the best corn you've ever seen. It grows fast, it's resistant to disease and insects and strong winds, it's tastier than the previous corn, you feed it to mice and the mice do fine. You find - well, you probably don't have replicators - you find somebody reliable to verify your reports, and you take that corn strain and sell it to farmers all over Cheliax. A year later, it's the most profitable corn anyone has ever seen, and only a complete fool of a farmer would grow anything else the next year. Two years later, it's the only strain of corn that anyone still grows in Cheliax, and it's starting to displace other crops that are less profitable to grow. All massively replicated out of that one original field."
