There are now less than 2 000. There are now only a few hundred remaining. Half of the languages spoken in the world have been extinguished, and we are rapidly extinguishing the ones that remain. In agriculture, monoculture involves the intensive farming of one particular crop. Rather than using traditional farming methods of crop rotation and leaving fields fallow, monoculture depends on fertiliser and pesticides to allow this intensive farming of the same land to continue year after year.
Monoculture has a number of important benefits, certainly in the short-term.
The crop, being uniform, is easier to manage. Greater densities of planting can be achieved, and there are generally high yields. Much of the 'Green Revolution' which started in the 1950s was based on monocultural methods. If a disease or virus should become resistant to the pesticide, it will wreck havoc on the entire crop. The pesticides that make it possible are rapidly being lost, either to resistance or to heightened concerns about their danger.