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Why Monoculture Is Bad

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Why Monoculture Is Bad
Soleil Navarro
College Prep
Mr. Pohl
April 14, 2017

Monoculture is bad Wondering about how our food is farmed isn’t a popular thing to do. I personally had never thought of the process until I read an article on the effects of monoculture. This made me realize that to get food for today we may be destroying the world tomorrow. By this I mean that the easy process of monoculture to yield large amounts of food is actually hurting us. When people think food they never quite stop and think about how it is produced and its effects on the environment. People live in the now, and seem to not care what it takes to receive instantaneous gratification of what is, food. The meaning of monoculture is self explanatory when you break …show more content…
Taking place in Ireland, the potato was a main food source for the poor, and from the 1830’s-1840’s the “Irish Lumper” potato was grown on a large scale. This particular potato, however was overcome by a disease called late blight. Eventually almost the entire potato crop had become diseased leaving behind infertile soil for new crops to grow. With no potatoes the people starved which then caused the population in Ireland to crash (Kniss). No good comes out of taking up crazy amounts of land to plant one crop over and over again. When crops are repeatedly planted in the same place, the soil becomes nutrient deficient. The way to introduce these nutrients back into the soil is through chemical fertilizers. Having to use fertilizers on the same already damaged land causes the soil to become resistant to all the chemicals used. Because of this, stronger chemical filled fertilizers must be used. The issue with this is that at times this soil is dragged by rain water into the nearest body of water. This water later harms the ecosystem by poisoning its surrounding wildlife, creating oxygen deprived “dead zones”, as well as contributing to the global warming emissions …show more content…
N.p., 14 July 2016. Web. 05 May 2017.
Foley, Jonathan. "It's Time to Rethink America's Corn System." Scientific American. N.p., 05 Mar. 2013. Web. 05 May 2017.
Kniss, Andrew. "The Problem with Monoculture." Control Freaks. N.p., 17 Aug. 2013. Web. 05 May 2017.
"The Problem with Pesticides." The Problem with Pesticides | Toxics Action Center. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 May 2017.
Sgbadmin. "Corn, It's What's Bad for You." Slanker Grass-Fed Meat. N.p., 22 Oct. 2014. Web. 05 May 2017.
Wilson, Victoria. "How the Growth of Monoculture Crops Is Destroying Our Planet and Still Leaving Us Hungry." One Green Planet. N.p., 17 Oct. 2014. Web. 05 May
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