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What would humanity's most reliable method for food look like on a planet where the sun never sets, great winds raged across the land, and large-scale storms were commonplace?

I'm curious if large-scale agriculture would be possible in such a setting given the technological limit. What type of plants would be most commonly used to best suit environmental challenges? Those challenges being constant strong winds caused by the heating of the sun facing side of the world and the cooling of the darkside- as well as the storms those winds would cause in the habitable zone. Would large-scale greenhouses on the sun side border of the habitable zone be practical to create semi-stable environments? Would planting on sun-facing slopes and hills be more effective than planting on a plane?

The technology level of this planet's inhabitants is generally equivalent to our world's 15th century, obviously not exactly the same- but stated to give a general idea of what would be available to those currently living on the planet. However, technology develops as it is needed so if there is a form of technology that the inhabitants of this planet would achieve quicker than we due to environmental pressures that would be allowed to be implemented.

My appreciation and thanks to anyone that considers and answers this question- I look forward to seeing what you come up with.

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    $\begingroup$ Just a note: the Renaissance was a very very specific phenomenon which happened in very very specific conditions in a relatively small area. Most of the world, here on Earth, did not have anything even remotely resembling western European Renaissance. Why would the alien world have a world-wide Renaissance? Moreover, their Renaissance would not be in any way similar to our Renaissance. What is the previous long lost culture being rediscovered? Surely not Earth's classical world. What is the current civilization being revolutionized? Surely not western European feudalism. $\endgroup$
    – AlexP
    Jan 14, 2022 at 0:57
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    $\begingroup$ Some additional detail about other agriculture impacting features of your world might help improve answers. The two that come immediately to my mind are liquid water resources (how much? what form(puddles, marshes, rivers, lakes, ocean) etc?) and Libration. $\endgroup$
    – Harthag
    Jan 14, 2022 at 19:15

2 Answers 2

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Live in the Twilight Zone

If the planet is tidally locked than there will be a border region between the “night side” and a the “day side” that would be in a state of endless twilight due to the curvature of the planet. This will be the region of the planet with the most mild temperature and it will give your people the ability to exploit both sides of the planet.

For instance they could go into the dark side of the planet to haul blocks of ice from the eternal glaciers there and use the scorching heat of the day to melt the water and irrigate the land and thereby provide for dry land agriculture where there’s an eternal desert (and a year round growing season with the constant sun exposure.)

There would likely be intense winds due to the temperature differences between the two sides so building windmills would be useful (and within the stated technology level).

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    $\begingroup$ Thank you so much for answering! I was aware of the habitable zone and assumed that is where life would flourish but I never considered ice-based irrigation or how much more useful windmills would be given the wind. The moment I have enough reputation to cast a up post on this answer I certainly will : ) $\endgroup$
    – Reddy
    Jan 14, 2022 at 1:57
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    $\begingroup$ In addition, this will also allow warfare to happen along the narrow strip of habitable land - and nowhere else. No flanking for you. $\endgroup$
    – KEY_ABRADE
    Jan 14, 2022 at 8:48
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I should think nothing special is required: Tidal locking takes at least hundreds of millions of years. On Earth, that is most of evolution; the earliest scientific evidence of rudimentary brains only appears about 500 million years ago.

Which means, on the way to tidal locking, all life on the planet will evolve to withstand the high winds. Just like trees probably evolved from fern-like plants because a woody skeleton is more resistant to predators and breaking, and as animals became bigger (dinosaurs) plant trunks became bigger and harder to break or trample with them. The edible leaves were raised up out of reach of most big animals; in the case of redwoods, out of reach of all big animals. I have an old tree in my front yard with a trunk 18" in diameter; 20 years ago it was struck by a speeding car, and stopped it cold. The car was a total loss, the driver ended up in the hospital. The tree ended up scarred, a lot of bark has gone permanently missing, but otherwise it continues to grow just fine. That's a tree that can hold its own against a dinosaur.

The same thing will happen on your planet. The plants may look very different, but the process of tidal-locking is very gradual, and they will have time to adapt to the increasing winds. If the planet remains livable at all, temperature wise, then your farmers won't have any trouble growing crops.

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