3.5.3 What happens in a monoculture – in the soil and with plant health?

A monoculture is when a single crop is grown in a space. When we have just one thing growing in an area, that produces a real loss of diversity in the soil. 

So say we were otherwise looking after the soil, and encouraging microorganisms in the soil, they will still be sparse in terms of diversity in a monoculture. Because what happens is that plants tend to form relationships with certain microorganisms. That means that if you just have one type of plant in a large area, you’ll only have a limited range of microorganisms, even if you otherwise do everything you can to make that soil healthy. And that actually makes the plants very vulnerable. So if there is a problem, then they can’t make use of a wider network. This vulnerability in itself of course also makes it harder to utilise other soil-friendly methods, as the plants are more likely to be affected by pests and diseases, and be less able to get the nutrients or protection they need. 

Imagine you have an ISSUE and your CLOSEST friends don’t have the RESOURCES or ability to help you. Hopefully they have FRIENDS who know SOMEONE else who can HELP. It’s a bit like this for plants in the soil. In times of difficulty, plants growing in healthy soil with a wide diversity of beneficial microorganisms can get help from further afield. A diverse social network is just as important to us humans, on lots of levels, not least to our mindset, and we’ll be coming back to this more in module 4. But for now let’s get back to the plants and soil.

So the plant’s wider social network and safety net are really important, especially in times of trouble, for example an extreme weather event, an inundation of a new pest, human beings spraying with a chemical. So if the plant doesn’t have that wider social network, the plant’s real safety net has disappeared. That means that the plant becomes more vulnerable to pests, diseases, natural disasters and to human disruptions of the soil.

As with digging or applying fertilisers and chemicals, the big issue with monocultures comes back to ISOLATION of plants from a healthy social network underground. And above ground for that matter – monocultures also disrupt important ecosystem functions above ground that would otherwise serve to protect the plant. 

All these methods that disrupt soil life, result in vulnerable and stressed plants – with a much greater risk of diseases, pest attacks, inability to cope with environmental and climatic changes and ultimately a poorer soil, which is going to have a reduced capacity for supporting healthy crops. 

But just in the same way that plants have become isolated from their social network in soil, many of us HUMANS have become isolated from our own invisible social network. 

There is plenty of crossover between what disrupts soil microorganisms and what disrupts our own microorganisms in and on our bodies. For example in the same way that PESTICIDES have a detrimental effect on microorganisms in soil, PESTICIDE residues on food, as well as ANTIBIOTICS, kill off not only the bad guys, but also the beneficial ones. In the same way that fast food in the form of SYNTHETIC fertilisers results in neglecting the plants interactions with soil microorganisms, human diets have become widely dominated by our own FAST food versions, which tend to be less gut-microorganism friendly, as well as synthetic flavourings and sweeteners amongst other things. And, in the same way that MONOCULTURES result in a less diverse, resilient and healthy soil, diets reduced to few ingredients result in less diverse, resilient and healthy microorganism populations within us. 

This lack of consideration for life in the soil has huge knock-on effects on ability of farmers to make a living on their crops, with many farmers depending on subsidies. In addition, farmers are needing to rest their land for longer and longer periods in between crops in order for soil to recover enough for another crop to be grown in the same space. This leads to more and more land being claimed as cropland, and an ever more viscous cycle with greater and more far-reaching consequences for health on all fronts.