You ’ve undoubtedly drive retiring farmer ’s fields at some dot in your life . All of those ostensibly dateless , waving fields of halcyon wheat or tall angry walk of clavus were absolutely beautiful , were n’t they ?
alas , those harvest are n’t anywhere nearly as beautiful as you ’d think for the environs . They ’re perfect example of monoculture , and the side effects of how they ’ve been farm have altered life on this major planet forever .
What Is Monoculture?
allow ’s break this countersign down into its two parts : “ mono ” mean “ one ” , and “ culture ” , as in cultivation . As such , “ monoculture ” is the practice of train one single crop or works species in a fussy orbit .
A perfect lesson of monoculture would be a well - groomed grassy lawn . This is utterly devoid of herbaceous plant , flowers , or other so - call “ weeds . ” In fact , the only thing that grow there is a finical grass species .
Other model include the aforesaid wheat berry or corn . These monochromatic farm fields are full of one crop or another , with nothing else get in between . There is the wheat field , the Daucus carota sativa orbit , the cabbage field , etc .
This character of monocropping is efficient as far as industrial harvest home goes . After all , a modern tractor can be program to trim off all the wheat berry or pull up all the Beta vulgaris in a individual go . unluckily , monoculture ’s detriments far overbalance its benefit .
Why is Monoculture Bad?
There are a number of different reasons why monoculture is a bad idea , but the primary one is soil depletion .
envisage a person who ’s see a bang-up deal of line loss , or is calcium run through from feeding children with their own body . If their Fe and calcium levels are n’t replenish , they ’ll be working at a deficit . As such , they ’ll stand from genus Anemia and osteoporosis , among other health military issue .
Now imagine what will befall if they keep getting depleted over and over again without adequate replenishment .
Sure , they might eat a steak or a bit of cheese here and there , but that wo n’t replenish the stores they had before they were depleted . It really only replenishes what they ’re currently using and does n’t fill again the shortage .
If that continues , their health issues will intensify until they finally keel over . The same affair happens with soil depletion . consider of the dust bowl of the Great Depression and you have the right idea .
1. Soil Depletion Affects Crop Health
Take a crop like cabbage , which expect a groovy passel of N to grow well . A expectant cabbage crop will deplete the soil of nitrogen rather significantly . so as to grow another healthy craw , that filth will have to be amended by replenishing its nitrogen shop .
Ideally , this is where craw rotary motion and fallow field practice would descend into result . After a crop of heavy - feed nitrogen hobgoblin is grown , the next crop would be full of nitrogen fixers .
For representative , that field of cabbages should be keep abreast by a huge harvest of field of operation peas . instead , some people seed a unripe mulch like red clover , which refill the N . That field is n’t used to grow food that class . It ’s sown with fill again plants and nourished with compost .
With monoculture husbandry , however , that kind ofholistic replenishmentdoesn’t happen .
Instead , the field is institute with the same craw , over and over again , without a rest period . As such , the grease catch more depleted every twelvemonth , and the plants get smaller , weak , and more unhealthy .
This is similar to how several children breastfed by depleted mothers will be modest and peaked than children fed from a healthy , well - nurture female parent ’s body .
To combat this , Farmer turn to chemical amendments or else of organic ones . The principal amendment is chemical plant food that force - feed nutrients into the soil . That does n’t work out the cabbage health problem , though .
2. Chemical Amendments Affect the Ecosystem
Healthy soil is full of beneficial microbes that nourish and protect the plants growing in it . When grime is depleted , those germ go bad off . This leaves the plants vulnerable to more pathogens and vulture .
As a outcome , Fannie Farmer counteract this depletion by hosing their plants down with pesticide and herbicides . Sure , this serve to subjugate predation and sess activity , but wreaks havoc on the surrounding ecosystem ( and beyond ) .
If you release a drop of red dye into a tub full of water , it ’ll dissipate . In fact , you wo n’t even notice it was ever there . sum several more drops , and you might see a wispy pink tint . Keep bring drops , and the H2O will eventually turn cherry .
That same effect happen when chemicals are added to grease .
goodly soilis teeming with healthy microbe , mycelium , and countless insects . In contrast , chemical substance - laden soil is barren of natural life . It has nutrients in it , but it ’ll kill off most insect sprightliness that comes into contact with it .
Yes , this means that the plant wo n’t get devoured by cane borer , cutworm , and other predatory dirt ball . But it also means that the grease wo n’t get aerated by earthworms , and pollinating dirt ball will get poison by the very pollen they ’re designed to collect .
3. Chemicals Contaminate Water
When you run through intellectual nourishment , the nutrients you consume are dispersed throughout your entire body via vein and blood vas . The same thing happen all over the planet through the water table .
Basically , if you spray a ton of chemical onto a field , they do n’t just stay in the theatre of operations .
They ooze down through the soil into the groundwater and keep moving . Those chemicals are carry into stream and rivers , and out into the sea . When the pee evaporates into mist and travels around the universe in cloud form , the chemical are carry along with them .
They do n’t just “ vanish . ” They ’re relocate . The innate peregrination of each water atom means that the sprays used to hose down crops in Iowa will stop up strike life in the Andes , Himalayas , Tasmania , etc .
What This Means for Life on Earth
The event of 80 - plus years of chemical pesticide and weed killer use in industrial husbandry is thatrainwater is no longer safe to drink.[2 ] Think about that for a second . Even in the most remote field of the satellite , the pelting that falls is too laden with chemical substance to be safe for human or creature consumption .
The fruit and vegetables we consume are , on ordinary , 60 - 90 % water system . If you feed animal protein , you know there ’s water in their tissue as well . homo need to consume a minimum of 32 apothecaries' ounce of water daily to endure . In fact , all life story on earth requires piss just to keep on existing .
Sure , some species can go days without water by lie inactive , but they will eventually die without it . But now , every individual sprightliness form on the planet is affected by the chemicals in the very water that keeps them alive .
Remember that spirit feed on life as well . The insects poisoned by herbicides and pesticide will in turn be run through by snakes , frogs , birds , and low rodents.[1 ] In turn , those animals will be preyed upon by hawk , bird of Minerva , foxes , etc .
They may also be eaten by domestic deary like detent and bozo . Your beloved fluffy friend might expire because they ’ve dared to wipe out a mouse that fed from a local farmer ’s field .
Now consider thateverythingyou eat and drink is affected by these chemical substance .
The Legacy Monoculture is Leaving
Marine biologist and eco - environmentalist Rachel Carson call all of this 60 year ago in her bookSilent springtime . In it , she talk about the long - reach effects that the weed killer and pesticides used in monoculture farming would have .
The loss of biodiversity alone is enough to be seriously alarming . That said , there are so many other disconfirming side effects that it ’s plain that we postulate to accommodate husbandry methods to a healthier , more holistic approach for the rice beer of all life on the satellite .
This includes switching from monoculture to polyculture [ 3 ] , and utilizing techniques such as companion engraft to combat pests and depredation .
Truly , the only welfare of monoculture farming is that it ’s more convenient to reap . Is that convenience worth poisoning all animation on Earth eternally ?
If you want to avoid the problems associated with monoculture , rip out your lawn and put back it with wild flower . Plant many dissimilar crops in your gardens and spread out regularly . Be sure to apply N - fixing plants andcover cropsto keep your dirt healthy and scale down the dependence on chemicals .
The more aboriginal and local plants you could apply in your garden , the better . And when you ’re faced with gadfly and diseases , sample to discover natural remedies .
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