That’s a common misconception. Three Sisters polyculture can be more “efficient” than monoculture when you measure “efficiency” by nutritional yield and soil health rather than just ease of machine-harvesting. And while many operations utilize modern machinery, the “efficiency” of monoculture is actively being re-evaluated in the face of climate change. It can produce up to 20% more protein per acre than corn grown alone, while significantly reducing the need for synthetic nitrogen and irrigation.^7,8^ Large-scale tribal operations are increasingly using “strip intercropping,” which is alternating rows of corn/beans and squash, to allow for modern mechanized harvesting while maintaining the soil-health benefits of the traditional system.^9^ This is resilience-based commercial farming that utilizes what is called Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) to survive droughts that kill monocultures.^10,11^

7: Food Yields and Nutrient Analyses of the Three Sisters: A Haudenosaunee Cropping System Ethnobiology Letters, 7(1), 87–98 (2016).

8: A framework to guide future farming research with Indigenous communities (2025)

9: Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative: Regenerating Native Agriculture

10: Why Indigenous Seed Keepers Hold the Future of Agriculture (2026)

11: en.wikipedia.org/…/Traditional_ecological_knowled…