It is well known that modern agricultural techniques are ecologically damaging. This book seeks to understand why, when we have known this for so long, such techniques continue to be used and developed, even when viable alternatives are available. It argues that agriculture has evolved because we have become locked in to the cultivation of crops that are increasingly uniform, and therefore vulnerable. The book explains the causes of this process in theoretical terms and through casestudies which reveal that the preference for genetic uniformity involved both more and less conscious choices to exclude more genetically diverse alternatives.
Book Description
It is well known that modern agricultural techniques are ecologically damaging. This book seeks to understand why, when we have known this for so long, such techniques continue to be used and developed, even when viable alternatives are available. It argues that agriculture has evolved because we have become "locked in" to the cultivation of crops that are increasingly uniform, and therefore vulnerable. The book explains the causes of this process in theoretical terms and through case-studies which reveal that the preference for genetic uniformity involved both more and less conscious choices to exclude more genetically diverse alternatives.
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