Monoculture: one thing that could change everything
“Something is going seriously wrong. We are trying to protect the world’s ecosystems from climate change. And now, on our first humble steps towards this goal we are about to create a subsidy system for mono-culture plantations–thereby turning wide stretches of land into biological deserts.”
Greenpeace International, SBSTA-18, June 2003, Bonn, Germany
The monoculture is the practice of growing one heavily concentrated crop, rather than the rotation of various crops through a farmer’s fields over time. For some companies that see the activity from a commercial perspective is an efficient and profitable way to cultivate, but seen from and ecologic point of view, is a total disaster.
Diversity is the essence of all ecosystems and monoculture is breaking that principle. If there is less vegetal diversity consequently animal diversity also decreases, the insects and animals that used to feed from other vegetable species disappear and thus also their predators.
Furthermore, monoculture damages considerably the soil, it losses fertility because the land as is always absorbing the same nutrients of the same specie and therefore the need of using fertilizers and chemicals to enrich it while water pollution increases. At the same time, plagues are more common in monoculture, fact that forces the use of pesticides that contaminates the air, the land and also the water.
Due to the influence of so called developed countries, the monoculture is nowadays present in more under development countries that regrettably are the ones that control the agricultural production because of negotiations as Free Trade Agreements. These types of policies pledge good results for agricultural sector and the economy of an entire country, but in the future stand for immense losses.
Monoculture is generating an environmental imbalance where diversity and a self-sufficient and sustainable ecosystem have been replaced by a homogenous, artificial and untenable environment. More over, in countries that agriculture represents almost 15% of their GDP will mean not only economical impacts for the future and for families in rural areas, but also the loss of a tradition and a deep respect for land and biodiversity.
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04 Feb 2014
por
anamariarocha
IMSD /
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