Our planet is littered with ancient civilisations that we believe were destroyed by war and pestilence; an often overlooked reason for their destruction was their inability to produce enough food to feed their growing populations.
A trigger of the collapse was the way food and crops were grown. The original plough was developed over 4000 years ago, and after centuries of improvement and fine-tuning, many civilisations became very efficient at producing crops using the plough.
Still, the plough had a downside, and many ancient civilisations annihilated their soil to feed their population growth. The plough was the main culprit, and soil erosion and loss of ecosystems were the results.
In the late 1940s, there was concern about how to feed our growing world population. To resolve this, a new method of agriculture was developed called the 'Green Revolution'. Soil nutrient deficiencies were managed with fertilisers, and insects and plant diseases were controlled with new pesticides to produce higher-yielding crops and pastures.
Over time, zero tillage techniques were developed to prevent soil erosion, and herbicides were created to eliminate weeds.
It sounds like an ideal method of agriculture. What could possibly go wrong?
Industrial monoculture cropping destroys the natural ecosystem that regulates insect attack, plant disease and soil nutrient cycling, water retention and soil carbon. Their very design requires the ever-increasing financial cost of fertiliser, insecticide, fungicide and herbicide, of which their source is a finite resource.
Couple this with the environmental and ecological damage being done to the planet's terrestrial and soil ecosystems and human health; we should be asking how long these techniques can continue.
Nature does not function as a monoculture. In natural systems like grasslands, hundreds of plant species are complemented by vast numbers and a huge diversity of insects, birds and animals.
The soil beneath grassland is also very diverse with micro-organisms that are so abundant a spoonful of healthy soil contains almost as many organisms as humans on the planet. Natural systems rarely suffer from disease or out-of-control insect attacks because the vast range of species keeps pests under control.
It should not come as a surprise that modern cropping systems are failing because of crop disease, insect attack and declining soil nutrients.
These cropping methods destroy the ecosystem essential for plants to grow. While there are cropping systems propped up with pesticides and excessive chemical fertiliser, they will continue to fail.
Starting in the late 1940s, the Green Revolution showed great promise for feeding the world and being free of insect attack and weeds. But it has failed because it never accounted for the natural function of ecosystems.
If it continues in the same manner without incorporating biological systems, it will always be plagued with ecological problems and continue to fail.
Learn more at www.winona.net.au
Response by: Colin Seis. Colin is a farmer from Gulgong, NSW. He is the author of Guardians of the Grasslands, published by Shooting Star.
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