MONOCROP AGRICULTURE
Subsidized Farmscape
Human Society Series: Monocrop Agri-Culture, 2021. Printed media collage, 10.5"x 4.5".
Biology, chemistry and physics all play a role in the transfer of energy from sunlight into storable energy. Plants were the first organisms on earth to achieve this, and it has altered the ecology. The transfer of energy with plants also depend on a diverse and plentiful microbiology of the soil.
"Microbes are the key, the caretakers of the soil." (Anderson, 125.)
"Growing abundantly on plants, such organisms may fulfill a protective role, removing or suppressing infectious agents originating from without. " (Krasil'nikov, 127.)
The microorganisms in the soil have a symbiotic transfer of nutrients and minerals with sugar from the plants, and the type of plant defines the rhizosphere that houses these healthy microbes. Chemical fertilizers damage these microecologies and make farmers dependent on fertilizers and pesticides to balance out the nutrients, at a detriment to the soil. (Anderson, 102.)
Our economy functions on monocrop cultures that can significantly affect the ecology of the land and the soil, often stripping it of its nutrients and leading to dependency on petrochemical fertilizers and pesticides and resulting in "nutritionally inferior crops". (Anderson, 63.)
CONTRASTING CULTIVATION
Farming Timeline
These two images contrast the standard lifestyles of farmers, from small town and homeowner farms, to mass production and corporate agriculture. While this has provided subsidized surpluses of food, the damaged soil means the energy and nutrients of the food grown isn't up to par from what it once was. (Anderson,102.)
We have to be aware of the long term effects of agriculture over the span of the past century to see the change in quality as well as quantity of monocrop foods. If we do not heed to the warnings of nature and the signals of poor soil, in the future food production will become a system of monopolized nutrients... but if we do pay attention to the health of the soil we can learn to use these microbes to improve the soil naturally and revive our nutrient dense farming practices.
The Great Depression of the 1920's and 30's was devastating, but the brutal destruction of farm lands in the Dust Bowl during the same time was worse for the health of people. Mismanaged and over-tilled fields contributed to a loss of topsoil and a bleaching of the microbiology in the soil. Nonorganic and chemical fertilizers only provide a temporary solution to a missing ecology of the soil, and perpetuate the "chemical treadmill". (Anderson, 105.)
If we do not pay attention to the consequences of poor agricultural practices like we did in the past, we will reach another breaking point and affect the ecology for the worse.
In amber waves of Glyphosate, loss in fruited plain.
This collage is a reminder of past folly and how it can resemble misdirection today. We are not the engineers of our destiny, we are the tenders of the earth. Hubris brings many civilizations down, and most societal collapses follow unstable agriculture. Animal-farming, petrochemical agriculture and permaculture all have the potential to shape the earth and feed mankind for the better, but some have detrimental costs that can outweigh the benefits. Where your food comes from has a true impact on vitality and diversity of life.
Sources
Arden B. Anderson, Science in Agriculture (Greenley, CO: Acres U.S.A., 2000).
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