monoculture

See the following -

Agriculture At A Crossroads: How Food Systems Affect Biodiversity

Kumi Naidoo | EcoWatch | May 23, 2014

On today’s United Nations biodiversity day, we are being asked to focus on small islands and their unique ecology and fragility in times of globally pervasive threats such as climate change. Read More »

Is the Consolidation of the Food Industry Turning Lettuce into a Weapon of Mass Destruction?

Anne Kim | Washington Monthly | January 1, 2016

In the summer of 2006, consumers across the country began falling sick from a particularly nasty strain of Escherichia coli bacteria, known as 0157:H7. Not all E. coli bacteria are dangerous, but 0157:H7 belongs to the Shiga toxin-producing group of pathogens (known as STEC), which can cause severe, and sometimes fatal, illness. By early October, 199 people in twenty-six states had fallen ill, resulting in 102 hospitalizations and thirty-one cases of kidney failure. Three people died, including a two-year-old boy in Utah...

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Open Sourcing Our Food System: Planting Seeds For The Future

Jim Berets and Megan DeGruttola | Open Source Delivers | September 17, 2013

Food. It’s a basic human need.  But as the world population has moved farther and farther from our agrarian roots, the food industry has shifted away from independent farmers and toward an industrial agricultural system.  Increasingly, large agricultural companies are turning to monocultures and genetic engineering for efficiency of production and competitive advantage... Read More »

The Rise Of Superweeds—And What To Do About It

Staff Writer | Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) | December 5, 2013

It sounds like a sci-fi movie: American farmers fighting desperately to hold back an onslaught of herbicide-defying "superweeds." But there's nothing imaginary—or entertaining—about this scenario. Superweeds are all too real, and they have now spread to over 60 million acres of our farmland, wreaking environmental and economic havoc wherever they go. Read More »