Monoculture

Monoculture is the practice of producing or growing one single crop over a wide area. The term is also applied in several fields.

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Land Use

Agriculture

The term is mostly used in agriculture and describes the practice of planting crops with the same patterns of growth resulting from genetic similarity. Examples include Wheat fields or Apple orchards or Grape vineyards. These cultivars have uniform growing requirements and habit resulting in greater yields on less land because planting, maintenance (including pest control) and harvesting can be standardized. This standardization results in less waste and loss from inefficient harvesting and planting. It also is beneficial because a crop can be tailor planted for a location that has special problems - like soil salt or drought or a short growing season.

Monoculture produces great yields by utilizing plants' abilities to maximize growth under less pressure from other species and more uniform plant structure. Uniform cultivars are able to better use available light and space, but also have a greater drain on soil nutrients. In the last 40 years modern practices such as monoculture planting and the use of synthesized fertilizers have greatly reduced the amount of land needed to produce much higher yielding crops. The success of monoculture cropping has produced a world wide surplus of food stuffs that has depressed crop prices that farms receive.

Forestry

In forestry, monoculture refers to the planting of one species of tree crop instead of encouraging a diverse canopy of trees. A diverse forest stimulates biodiversity by providing suitable habitat for different species. Some countries such as Scotland have programs in place to create incentives for landowners to plant native species broadleaf trees instead of non-native fast growing conifers.

Catastrophic crop failure

The dependence on a Monoculturely produced crop can lead to large scale crop failures when the single genetic variant or cultivar becomes susceptible to a pathogen or when a change in normal weather patterns occur. The Great Irish Famine (1845-1849) was caused by susceptibility of the potato to Phytophthora infestans. The wine industry in Europe was devastated by susceptibility to Phylloxera during the late 19th century. Each crop then had to be replaced by a new cultivar imported from another country that had used a different genetic variant that was not susceptible to the pathogen.

Lawns and animals

Examples of monoculs include lawns and most field crops, such as wheat or corn. The term is also used where a single species of farm animal is raised in large-scale concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs).

Polyculture

The environmental movement seeks to change popular culture by redefining the "perfect lawn" to be something other than a turf monoculture, and seeks agricultural policy that provides greater encouragement for more diverse cropping systems. Local food systems may also encourage growing multiple species and a wide variety of crops at the same time and same place. Heirloom gardening has come about largely as a reaction against monocultures in agriculture.

Computer science

In computer science, a monoculture is any computer system which is nearly universally used. This concept is significant when discussing computer security and viruses. In particular, Dan Geer has argued that Microsoft is a monoculture, since a majority of the overall number of computers connected to the Internet are workstations and servers running versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system, many of which are vulnerable to the same attacks.

See also

• Polyculture
• Seed bank
• Biodiversity
• Heirloom gardening
• Three Sisters