Thank you for this. It seems that as you say monoculture is a beartrap waiting to spring. I wonder if there are any religions that require polyculture - is that the word? I wondered it to Gemini Flash, and the best it could come up with was "many Native American tribes, including the Iroquois, Cherokee, and Hopi, traditionally plant corn, beans, and squash together. This isn't just practical; it has deep spiritual significance, symbolizing the interconnectedness of life and the gifts of the earth."
When I was a younger man, I studied ecology in college. I must say that from an evolutionary standpoint, monoculture is a disaster in waiting. Largely for the reasons you summarized in this article. Genetic diversity is important to ensure that a strain may survive an ecological threat like a rust or fungus or similar. Even though there is much research (and selective genetic intervention) in the cereal crops to minimize the bad effects of regional outbreaks... the genome has way less variability now. A welcome memory of years gone by... thanks!
This is a great article, thank you for the shout out regarding my article on Anthropocene! Plant pathogens are a key parasite on the human agricultural complex, and their expansion is vital for understanding the expansion of anthropogenic ecosystems across the world. Now, if we could only all collectively heed your warnings, and strive together toward a diverse social ecology, that would be life-saving.
As hard as chestnut blight is it isn't 'dropped' into a monoculture - see Dutch Elm Disease from back in the 1970/80s UK/NW Europe, all be it a non-food plant mostly. Due mostly to vegetative propagation along the otherwise scared hedgerows of England.
Potatoes are an 'exotic' crop plant from a different continent, and tenancy didn't help diversity in crop selection. This is why projects like these are so important;
This morning's other read, with an overlap;
Dispelling The Myth Of The Wild
https://www.noemamag.com/farming-the-wild/
... what farms came from and where they might go via Athens and Jerusalem. Enjoy especially if you haven't seen it..
Thank you for this. It seems that as you say monoculture is a beartrap waiting to spring. I wonder if there are any religions that require polyculture - is that the word? I wondered it to Gemini Flash, and the best it could come up with was "many Native American tribes, including the Iroquois, Cherokee, and Hopi, traditionally plant corn, beans, and squash together. This isn't just practical; it has deep spiritual significance, symbolizing the interconnectedness of life and the gifts of the earth."
When I was a younger man, I studied ecology in college. I must say that from an evolutionary standpoint, monoculture is a disaster in waiting. Largely for the reasons you summarized in this article. Genetic diversity is important to ensure that a strain may survive an ecological threat like a rust or fungus or similar. Even though there is much research (and selective genetic intervention) in the cereal crops to minimize the bad effects of regional outbreaks... the genome has way less variability now. A welcome memory of years gone by... thanks!
Bananas (and mangoes too) have a larger count in my local greengrocer than potatoes. : (((((
This is a great article, thank you for the shout out regarding my article on Anthropocene! Plant pathogens are a key parasite on the human agricultural complex, and their expansion is vital for understanding the expansion of anthropogenic ecosystems across the world. Now, if we could only all collectively heed your warnings, and strive together toward a diverse social ecology, that would be life-saving.
As hard as chestnut blight is it isn't 'dropped' into a monoculture - see Dutch Elm Disease from back in the 1970/80s UK/NW Europe, all be it a non-food plant mostly. Due mostly to vegetative propagation along the otherwise scared hedgerows of England.
Potatoes are an 'exotic' crop plant from a different continent, and tenancy didn't help diversity in crop selection. This is why projects like these are so important;
Inside Africa's Food Forest Mega-Project - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbBdIG--b58
... and ...
How 8,000 Food Forests Grew Africa's Great Green Wall - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LCTVO_Y5Rs&t=727s