But clearly the situation is untenable. Obviously it would be better to grow food locally for local use, as we once did. Monocultures are also weak, subject to insect blights, diseases, and bad weather. The tremendous volume of pesticides needed to keep monocultures alive also kills biological and genetic diversity in the soil. Then finally, as usable farmland disappears, new pressures are created to encroach upon wilderness areas, yet another threat to biodiversity.
Some corporations say the solution lies with biotechnology.
But biotechnology operates on the same monocultural principles. Where it has been tried, there have been spectacular failures, costing farmers millions of dollars. Unlike ordinary pollution, genetic pollution might never be stopped. It is madness to take the risk. Like all of industrial agriculture, biotechnology promotes the idea that the goal of agriculture is to control, simplify, and homogenize, without concern for nature.