A Companion to the Philosophy of Technology

Monocrops

The practice of planting monoculture crops, single crops grown over thousands of kilometers, reduces the genetic diversity of a region of land, creates an ecological vacuum that insects and disease exploit, reducing the quality of the soil while increasing the chance of crop failure. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the world has lost 75 percent of its crop diversity owing to agricultural monoculture. These reductions in biodiversity have consequences throughout the food chain. Farmers must increasingly rely on chemical fertilizers and pesticides to compensate for the lack of genetic diversity. Insects and disease, however, form resistance, necessitating further chemical intervention.