Chinampas of Mexico: Most Productive Agriculture EVER?
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN recommends it as a clear introduction to chinampas and an example of productive agroforestry.
What it is
Permaculture instructor Andrew Millison visits the chinampas, the floating gardens of Xochimilco in Mexico City. He looks at this ancient Aztec agricultural system and the project restoring it.
Recommended by 3 HN commenters across 3 different months, 2023 to 2026.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec jacobolus · 2024-05 · on “Gene banks aren’t enough to save the world’s food”
I recently came across the videos of Oregon State horticulturalist Andrew Millison, who is an amazingly clear presenter about permaculture: [LINK] For example, he has nice videos about chinampas in Mexico [this video] , a medieval Indian canal tunnel of a style found throughout Iran [LINK] , efforts to return a Hawaiian watershed to something like its historical state [LINK] , the Indian Paani Foundation's "water cup" to revitalize drought stricken villages [LINK] , and the difficulty of using ancient iron-saturated aquifers for irrigation in western Egypt [LINK]
Recommends datameta · 2023-10 · on “A Dutch graphic artist reconstructed Tenochtitlan in 3D”
The chinampas are a super neat example of agroforestry. The soil is extremely dark (like Ukrainian chernozem or better) and has a very low depletion per cycle. Some still exist and are being stewarded toward renewal and proliferation! [LINK] [this video]
Recommends culi · 2026-04 · on “Girl, 10, finds rare Mexican axolotl under Welsh bridge”
This is awesome, thanks for sharing. Andrew Wilson, who works with the United Nations World Food Program, also made an in-depth minidoc on them: [this video]