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DCL
Monoculture is a term used to for "The planting, cultivation, and harvesting of a single species of crop in a specified area." At first blush, it may sound mundane. In reality, as Wiki explains: "The dependence on monoculture crops can lead to large scale failures when the single genetic variant or cultivar becomes susceptible to a pathogen or when a change in weather patterns occur."
What's the alternative? Well, as Julia Whitty declared at Mother Jones, "organic kicks monoculture ass." Whitty tells of a 13-year study out of the University of Wisconsin that assessed "pastures planted with multiple crop species, as well as organic fields, and compared them to conventional alfalfa and corn farms at two sites in southern Wisconsin from 1993 to 2006." The simple conclusion: "Diversified systems were more profitable than monocropping and organic systems were more profitable than the Midwestern standards of continuous corn, no-till corn, no-till soybeans, and intensively managed alfalfa."
Speaking more metaphorically, monoculture is a term used to describe our increasingly one-size-fits-all lifestyle.
