Our future is in the genes
In my humanities class, Food For Thought , we studied more about the origins of foods. This time we also went deeper into the negative aspects that came with the way the food we eat is grown. These aspects including work exploitation, slavery, and dangerous working conditions. Often times we saw that like many things in this world the food industry wasn't interested in feeding people but instead in making a profit. We also learned the consequences this could have such as the heavy reliance on things like monoculture. After studying all this we focused on one of the United Nations SDG's, SDG 2; Zero Hunger. We were to focus on one target and deliver a speech on it along with a solution. Here is what I did:
Imagine walking into a grocery about 30 years from now . Easy enough right? You’re in the mood for some bananas so you go to pick some up… but they’re not there and then you remember hearing something about a banana shortage. So you move on and go to find some avocados that would go great with that toast you’ve been craving all day. So you search and search around the store for some but once again… they’re not there. All this looking around for food has now got you craving something to relax you… you decide some wine would help. So you go looking for that wine as you turn around the aisle there you see it! Wine! You reach for it excited that you didn’t drive your car and released 20 pounds of carbon dioxide for nothing, no this bottle of wine was completely worth it. As you put the bottle of wine in your shopping cart you take a quick glance at the price tag. Holy moly! $60 for one bottle?? And not even the good type! Shocked and saddened by the lack of money in your pockets now you leave the grocery store with only a bottle of wine. Can you imagine a future like this? If you can’t then you are like many Americans who believe that they’re favorite foods will always be in stock. Unfortunately this state of mind is not fully sustainable or even possible. Why do you ask? The answer is simple “Lack of Genetic Diversity” and “Monoculture”. If we don’t act quickly this future is as certain as the fact Carol Baskin killed her husband. Luckily to every problem there is a solution.
One of the SDG’s set by the United Nations is SDG 2; Zero Hunger. One of the targets is listed as “maintain the genetic diversity of seeds, cultivated plants and farmed and domesticated animals and their related wild species” (UN Development Programme). Why is this target so important? Well let's use the future of the banana as an example. The banana is one of the most consumed fresh fruits in all of America. What we recognise as the common banana is actually only one type of banana “The Cavendish Banana”. Due to its major popularity and demand plantations have focused on producing only this one banana closing off opportunities for other types of bananas to rise to the same type of popularity. The cavendish banana has shaped whole countries industries and economies. Unfortunately this has led many Central American countries to become “monocultures” meaning they only rely on a certain crop for most of their income. The endless plantations of the same clone of bananas has one major weakness, diseases. The moment one plantation catches a disease it spreads “like wildfire”. Unfortunately there is one major disease Cavendish bananas are vulnerable to that disease being, TI - 4 otherwise known as the Panama disease. It has already destroyed many plantations in places like the Philippines. The moment the disease reaches Central American it will only take about “4 years to destroy a whole country's crop”. When this happens in the best scenario it will only make banana prices go up and in the worst case scenario it might be the full extinction of the cavendish banana. Unfortunately the destruction of these plantations doesn’t just mean we won’t get to eat as much bananas anymore no it goes deeper. It can mean the full destruction of the country's economy due to the monoculture they relied on. Which leads us to the next reason why we must preserve genetic diversity, if we don’t it can mean widespread famine. Going back on this banana example since Costa Rica is one of the most monoculture reliant countries in the world if the banana were to be gone it would financially devastate families across the country. Without money many won’t be able to afford foods leading to a country wide famine. And what comes along with famine? Death. With no food people become more susceptible to things like diseases and if they catch one there will be nowhere to go for treatment if they have no money, that’s if they don’t die from starvations first. The banana is just one example of the destruction lack of genetic diversity can bring upon. Now putting into scale the fact many other crops like avocado, wine grapes, and rice may face the same fate it gets scary. Economic destruction, Famine, and death. Well has this ever happened before? The answer is yes.
In the past there have been many consequences of only relying on one type of crop. like in the Irish potato famine back in the 1840’s which killed around 1 million people. But that was a long time ago right? I mean we’ve changed right? The real answer is no. The only true change has been the use of stronger chemicals and pesticides. We still heavily rely on monoculture which has proven to fail us. While the Irish potato famine was a long time ago there have been similar occurrences. One of them being the Southern Corn leaf blight of 1970. A fungus spread across many corn fields in America. Unfortunately the losses of corn were big “reaching as high as 50-100% in some areas of the US” (APS). There was a total loss of up to 1 billion dollars nation wide. This did not only affect corn itself as it is noted “ corn futures [had] risen in price more than 10 per cent in the last two weeks in response to reports of widespread damage to the feed grain crops” (NY times). Luckily that time we did have a solution to isolate the infected corn and the return to corn seeds that weren’t susceptible to the disease. It was then stated that “ Diversity must be maintained in both the genetic and cytoplasmic constitution of all important crop species." (A. J. Ullstrup 1972 The impacts of the southern leaf corn blight epidemics of 1970-1971. Annual Reviews). Many noticed that keeping the diversity of seeds had saved us from a nationwide disaster.
From this example we must learn from history by simply not repeating the same mistakes. While this may sound easy we have shown over various occurrences that we often revert to old ways due to its convenience and benefits. From there the cycle repeats. So it is our job to break this cycle. As the younger generations it is our job to come up with a solution to break us from this cycle once and for all. Many solutions have been proposed in the past. Solutions ranging from raising prices of certain crops to make farmers want to expand the variety they grow all the way to solutions that involve overthrowing capitalism. Out of all the solutions various experts have agreed the most achievable one is to start intercropping, more specifically strip intercropping.Intercropping is the idea of growing crops in between other crops so that they grow together. Many experts believe “ provides some balance between the benefits of monoculture, and the benefits of polyculture” (The problem with monoculture). It does this by allowing farmers to plant the “cash crops” but also keeps the diversity by planting other similar crops that grow well together. This way we can maintain various types of crops so if our main “cash crops” were to ever fail us we wouldn’t be completely devastated. We would have the others as back ups. But wait, that's not the only benefit. It also maximizes the productivity of fields. I mean why only produce one crop in a big field when you can produce multiple? Especially when it means protection against things like diseases and a healthier ecosystem. Meaning less pesticides and fertilizer would need to be used. And of course is that not enough to catch attention strip intercropping can also mean an increase in profit. The more crops grown, the more income that comes in from selling those. While strip intercropping is only one solution out of many, with all the evidence showing how reliant we are on monoculture I believe it is a good transition into bringing more genetic crop diversity into our
In the end the fate of our future is in our own hands. It is up to us the younger generations, us the citizens of today, us as human beings to make a change and preserve endless varieties of foods mother earth has blessed us with. The future is uncertain and can be scary , I mean a future with no bananas or wine? That’s worth one fighting against.Only by making a change and not repeating the same mistakes as past generations we can move forward with less fear knowing we took our fate into our own hands. Thank you and hope you have a great day.
Sources:
I-Sis. “US Staple Crop System Failing from GM and Monoculture.” The Permaculture Research Institute, 11 July 2013, www.permaculturenews.org/2013/07/11/us-staple-crop-system-failing-from-gm-and-monoculture/
“DisplayTitleHistory: Classroom Activities in Plant Biotechnology.” History, www.apsnet.org/edcenter/disimpactmngmnt/labexercises/PlantBiotechnology/Pages/History.aspx
Krug, Chase James. “Importance of Genetic Diversity in Agriculture.” Medium, TheNextNorm, 23 July 2018,
medium.com/thenextnorm/importance-of-genetic-diversity-in-agriculture-b9f88f5fda55.
Kniss, Andrew. “The Problem With Monoculture.” Food and Farm Discussion Lab, 13 Feb. 2017, fafdl.org/blog/2017/01/26/the-problem-with-monoculture/
Pomranz, Mike, and Mike Pomranz. “The Most Common Banana Variety Is in Danger of Extinction.” Food & Wine, www.foodandwine.com/news/most-common-banana-variety-danger-extinction
Ryerson, Lia. “12 Of Your Favorite Foods That Might Be Going Extinct Soon.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 20 Feb. 2018, www.businessinsider.com/food-going-extinct-2018-2#avocados-1
Shipman, Matt. “The Importance of Crop Genetic Diversity.” Phys.org, Phys.org, 30 Mar. 2017, phys.org/news/2017-03-importance-crop-genetic-diversity.html
Vice, Bananas Are Doomed, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Bm5NWCMlPo&t=356s
Script :
Imagine walking into a grocery about 30 years from now . Easy enough right? You’re in the mood for some bananas so you go to pick some up… but they’re not there and then you remember hearing something about a banana shortage. So you move on and go to find some avocados that would go great with that toast you’ve been craving all day. So you search and search around the store for some but once again… they’re not there. All this looking around for food has now got you craving something to relax you… you decide some wine would help. So you go looking for that wine as you turn around the aisle there you see it! Wine! You reach for it excited that you didn’t drive your car and released 20 pounds of carbon dioxide for nothing, no this bottle of wine was completely worth it. As you put the bottle of wine in your shopping cart you take a quick glance at the price tag. Holy moly! $60 for one bottle?? And not even the good type! Shocked and saddened by the lack of money in your pockets now you leave the grocery store with only a bottle of wine. Can you imagine a future like this? If you can’t then you are like many Americans who believe that they’re favorite foods will always be in stock. Unfortunately this state of mind is not fully sustainable or even possible. Why do you ask? The answer is simple “Lack of Genetic Diversity” and “Monoculture”. If we don’t act quickly this future is as certain as the fact Carol Baskin killed her husband. Luckily to every problem there is a solution.
One of the SDG’s set by the United Nations is SDG 2; Zero Hunger. One of the targets is listed as “maintain the genetic diversity of seeds, cultivated plants and farmed and domesticated animals and their related wild species” (UN Development Programme). Why is this target so important? Well let's use the future of the banana as an example. The banana is one of the most consumed fresh fruits in all of America. What we recognise as the common banana is actually only one type of banana “The Cavendish Banana”. Due to its major popularity and demand plantations have focused on producing only this one banana closing off opportunities for other types of bananas to rise to the same type of popularity. The cavendish banana has shaped whole countries industries and economies. Unfortunately this has led many Central American countries to become “monocultures” meaning they only rely on a certain crop for most of their income. The endless plantations of the same clone of bananas has one major weakness, diseases. The moment one plantation catches a disease it spreads “like wildfire”. Unfortunately there is one major disease Cavendish bananas are vulnerable to that disease being, TI - 4 otherwise known as the Panama disease. It has already destroyed many plantations in places like the Philippines. The moment the disease reaches Central American it will only take about “4 years to destroy a whole country's crop”. When this happens in the best scenario it will only make banana prices go up and in the worst case scenario it might be the full extinction of the cavendish banana. Unfortunately the destruction of these plantations doesn’t just mean we won’t get to eat as much bananas anymore no it goes deeper. It can mean the full destruction of the country's economy due to the monoculture they relied on. Which leads us to the next reason why we must preserve genetic diversity, if we don’t it can mean widespread famine. Going back on this banana example since Costa Rica is one of the most monoculture reliant countries in the world if the banana were to be gone it would financially devastate families across the country. Without money many won’t be able to afford foods leading to a country wide famine. And what comes along with famine? Death. With no food people become more susceptible to things like diseases and if they catch one there will be nowhere to go for treatment if they have no money, that’s if they don’t die from starvations first. The banana is just one example of the destruction lack of genetic diversity can bring upon. Now putting into scale the fact many other crops like avocado, wine grapes, and rice may face the same fate it gets scary. Economic destruction, Famine, and death. Well has this ever happened before? The answer is yes.
In the past there have been many consequences of only relying on one type of crop. like in the Irish potato famine back in the 1840’s which killed around 1 million people. But that was a long time ago right? I mean we’ve changed right? The real answer is no. The only true change has been the use of stronger chemicals and pesticides. We still heavily rely on monoculture which has proven to fail us. While the Irish potato famine was a long time ago there have been similar occurrences. One of them being the Southern Corn leaf blight of 1970. A fungus spread across many corn fields in America. Unfortunately the losses of corn were big “reaching as high as 50-100% in some areas of the US” (APS). There was a total loss of up to 1 billion dollars nation wide. This did not only affect corn itself as it is noted “ corn futures [had] risen in price more than 10 per cent in the last two weeks in response to reports of widespread damage to the feed grain crops” (NY times). Luckily that time we did have a solution to isolate the infected corn and the return to corn seeds that weren’t susceptible to the disease. It was then stated that “ Diversity must be maintained in both the genetic and cytoplasmic constitution of all important crop species." (A. J. Ullstrup 1972 The impacts of the southern leaf corn blight epidemics of 1970-1971. Annual Reviews). Many noticed that keeping the diversity of seeds had saved us from a nationwide disaster.
From this example we must learn from history by simply not repeating the same mistakes. While this may sound easy we have shown over various occurrences that we often revert to old ways due to its convenience and benefits. From there the cycle repeats. So it is our job to break this cycle. As the younger generations it is our job to come up with a solution to break us from this cycle once and for all. Many solutions have been proposed in the past. Solutions ranging from raising prices of certain crops to make farmers want to expand the variety they grow all the way to solutions that involve overthrowing capitalism. Out of all the solutions various experts have agreed the most achievable one is to start intercropping, more specifically strip intercropping.Intercropping is the idea of growing crops in between other crops so that they grow together. Many experts believe “ provides some balance between the benefits of monoculture, and the benefits of polyculture” (The problem with monoculture). It does this by allowing farmers to plant the “cash crops” but also keeps the diversity by planting other similar crops that grow well together. This way we can maintain various types of crops so if our main “cash crops” were to ever fail us we wouldn’t be completely devastated. We would have the others as back ups. But wait, that's not the only benefit. It also maximizes the productivity of fields. I mean why only produce one crop in a big field when you can produce multiple? Especially when it means protection against things like diseases and a healthier ecosystem. Meaning less pesticides and fertilizer would need to be used. And of course is that not enough to catch attention strip intercropping can also mean an increase in profit. The more crops grown, the more income that comes in from selling those. While strip intercropping is only one solution out of many, with all the evidence showing how reliant we are on monoculture I believe it is a good transition into bringing more genetic crop diversity into our
In the end the fate of our future is in our own hands. It is up to us the younger generations, us the citizens of today, us as human beings to make a change and preserve endless varieties of foods mother earth has blessed us with. The future is uncertain and can be scary , I mean a future with no bananas or wine? That’s worth one fighting against.Only by making a change and not repeating the same mistakes as past generations we can move forward with less fear knowing we took our fate into our own hands. Thank you and hope you have a great day.
Sources:
I-Sis. “US Staple Crop System Failing from GM and Monoculture.” The Permaculture Research Institute, 11 July 2013, www.permaculturenews.org/2013/07/11/us-staple-crop-system-failing-from-gm-and-monoculture/
“DisplayTitleHistory: Classroom Activities in Plant Biotechnology.” History, www.apsnet.org/edcenter/disimpactmngmnt/labexercises/PlantBiotechnology/Pages/History.aspx
Krug, Chase James. “Importance of Genetic Diversity in Agriculture.” Medium, TheNextNorm, 23 July 2018,
medium.com/thenextnorm/importance-of-genetic-diversity-in-agriculture-b9f88f5fda55.
Kniss, Andrew. “The Problem With Monoculture.” Food and Farm Discussion Lab, 13 Feb. 2017, fafdl.org/blog/2017/01/26/the-problem-with-monoculture/
Pomranz, Mike, and Mike Pomranz. “The Most Common Banana Variety Is in Danger of Extinction.” Food & Wine, www.foodandwine.com/news/most-common-banana-variety-danger-extinction
Ryerson, Lia. “12 Of Your Favorite Foods That Might Be Going Extinct Soon.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 20 Feb. 2018, www.businessinsider.com/food-going-extinct-2018-2#avocados-1
Shipman, Matt. “The Importance of Crop Genetic Diversity.” Phys.org, Phys.org, 30 Mar. 2017, phys.org/news/2017-03-importance-crop-genetic-diversity.html
Vice, Bananas Are Doomed, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Bm5NWCMlPo&t=356s
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