Monocultures are when only a single type of crop is being cultivated in a single area. Monocultures have become the norm in the United States and many other parts of the world. At the start of this semester I did not think having a lot of one single crop was a bad idea. Having a few types of delicious apples and the same bananas at the store every day made me feel comfortable. I knew exactly what I was getting every time I went to the store. No mass difference between types of fruits and vegetables was found. I was ok with this standard. However, after going through the readings throughout this semester my position has changed on my monoculture habituation. It turns out that monocultures pose a lot of threats and with one single variety we
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A few of the reasons why I changed my opinion on monocultures was the Botany of Desire documentary and its look at apples and the articles on the recent outbreak of Panama disease in bananas. These resources really ended up changing my mind on how I view food in my everyday life. A common fruit I find almost everyday is the apple. In the documentary Botany of Desire, author Michael Pollan talks about the evolution of the apple in America. He outlines its growth in early America from Johnny Appleseed and apple cider to the monoculture of today. Pollan describes the market today for apples as being only a few varieties, “Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, and the Macintosh”. He goes on to state how we got into this sticky situation. Back in the 19th century apple orchards were mostly managed and used to produce hard cider. A drink that has a rich history in America being a pioneer drink and a drink of …show more content…
A generally sweet variety that is fairly large in size. The surprising thing to me and to most people is that there is more than one type of banana. The only banana we see is the Cavendish. Why do we only see this one type of banana? The answer is monocultures. The Cavendish banana is highly popular in the United States and so if it makes money that is what is produced on a massive scale. There are actually bananas of many different sizes and colors too. So why does not knowing about the other types of bananas matter? Well, an outbreak has begun attacking the Cavendish banana. This disease has killed thousands of bananas since as early as the 1960s. The Panama Disease, as it is called, is a type of fungus that grows on the bananas and can not be removed. The type spreading today is known as, “Tropical Race 4” (Guilford, The world’s favorite fruit is slowly but surely being driven to extinction. We only have this problem still today, even though we have known about it since the sixties, because of the monoculture we have in America. Having only the Cavendish banana being grown is detrimental to the Cavendish. Since we do not grow multiple varieties to stop the spread of the disease, the pest can just run rampant. This growing disease really opened my eyes to the problem with monocultures, and how one of my favorite varieties of fruit could be wiped out completely. Even though I was fine with only knowing
A few of the reasons why I changed my opinion on monocultures was the Botany of Desire documentary and its look at apples and the articles on the recent outbreak of Panama disease in bananas. These resources really ended up changing my mind on how I view food in my everyday life. A common fruit I find almost everyday is the apple. In the documentary Botany of Desire, author Michael Pollan talks about the evolution of the apple in America. He outlines its growth in early America from Johnny Appleseed and apple cider to the monoculture of today. Pollan describes the market today for apples as being only a few varieties, “Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, and the Macintosh”. He goes on to state how we got into this sticky situation. Back in the 19th century apple orchards were mostly managed and used to produce hard cider. A drink that has a rich history in America being a pioneer drink and a drink of …show more content…
A generally sweet variety that is fairly large in size. The surprising thing to me and to most people is that there is more than one type of banana. The only banana we see is the Cavendish. Why do we only see this one type of banana? The answer is monocultures. The Cavendish banana is highly popular in the United States and so if it makes money that is what is produced on a massive scale. There are actually bananas of many different sizes and colors too. So why does not knowing about the other types of bananas matter? Well, an outbreak has begun attacking the Cavendish banana. This disease has killed thousands of bananas since as early as the 1960s. The Panama Disease, as it is called, is a type of fungus that grows on the bananas and can not be removed. The type spreading today is known as, “Tropical Race 4” (Guilford, The world’s favorite fruit is slowly but surely being driven to extinction. We only have this problem still today, even though we have known about it since the sixties, because of the monoculture we have in America. Having only the Cavendish banana being grown is detrimental to the Cavendish. Since we do not grow multiple varieties to stop the spread of the disease, the pest can just run rampant. This growing disease really opened my eyes to the problem with monocultures, and how one of my favorite varieties of fruit could be wiped out completely. Even though I was fine with only knowing