One goal in designing RTT forests is the production of food for workers. During working hours, workers manage the young plantings, weeding and caring for the young forest trees until they can fend for themselves. After normal hours, they are allowed to plant and harvest crops between the rows of trees.
Rows of corn planted between rows of trees in the Triumvirate Carbon-Offset Forest. Photo taken April 24, 2009
The crops include corn (shown at right), yucca, cilantro, pineapple, plantains, bananas and papaya. Some of the latter two plants are left to grow purposely to feed wildlife.
Lester Brown of the Earth Policy Institute pointed out in a recent article that “the biggest threat to global political stability is the potential for food crises in poor countries to cause governments to collapse. Those crises are brought on by rising demand and ever worsening environmental degradation.”
The RTT Model forests help meet the challenges of climate change and local food scarcity in a small way.
