Promiscuous culture in agriculture means having a wide diversity of crops within which individual crops help other crops to stay healthy in terms of nutrition, soil erosion, pests and diseases. The term derived from the Roman ‘cultura promiscua’ as David Montgomery explains in Dirt: The Erosion of Civilization: “The earliest Roman farmers planted a multistory canopy of olives, grapes, cereals, and fodder crops referred to as cultura promiscua. Interplanting of understory and overstory crops smothered weeds, saved labor, and prevented erosion by shielding the ground all year. Roots of each crop reached different depths and [thus] did not compete with each other. Instead, the multi-crop system raised soil temperatures and extended the growing season.’