Why You Should Be Afraid Of The Popular Monoculture Mindset

gardeningabc (53)in #gardening • 7 years ago

The followings have been an excert from the beautiful article written on permaculture blog. It briefly explains the perils of monoculture mindset of the western world. I am sharing this with you guys for your awareness. Go here to read the whole article

The Dangers Of Monoculture

There are a whole host of dangers associated with monocultures. The annual tilling of the soil for nutrient hungry crops has pretty much decimated the life of the soil that brings natural fertility. Synthetic, oil-based fertilizers now give offer the basic nutrients that plants need to grow, though the lack of the various micronutrients provided by healthy soil has led to nutrient deficient crops. When oil becomes scarcer, we will collectively face the challenge of how to provide fertility to our depleted soils in order to feed our growing population.

Nature has no monocultures. If you look around a natural ecosystem, you will find a diversity of plants growing together in one place. Each plant serves a particular function in that ecosystem together with the fungi, insects, animals, etc. A greater diversity allows for more resilience within the ecosystem itself. “Don´t put all your eggs in one basket” is a piece of wisdom you probably heard from your grandmother when you were younger. With industrialized monoculture agriculture, not only have we placed all our eggs in one basket, but we´ve also placed that basket of eggs at the very edge of the table where any unexpected movement will surely cause them to fall.

By going against the patterns of nature that design for diversity, we have effectively accentuated our vulnerability. The concentration of one type of plant in large proportions invites disaster. Whereas diversity allows for natural predators to control one another, monocultures allow for a proliferation of troublesome pests and plagues that can ruin crops. Industrial agriculture has “solved” that problem by continually inventing stronger and stronger pesticides, fungicides, and every imaginable type of poison to try and control the natural world. Genetically modified crops have genes from certain types of bacteria spliced into them to keep those crops safe from certain types of disease.

Though it may comfort us to believe that agro-scientists are being successful in their quest to control the natural world, the reality is that for every problem they “solve”, two more problems arise. The natural world simply does not tolerate monocultures and will do all it can to reverse back to diversity.