Crop diversity is at an all time low. When farmers and growers favor planting a high-yield crop variety, they also irreversibly killed off the other species of that crop. This form of farming, long been a practice in commercial farm production, eventually led to the loss of agricultural sustainability all over the world. Potato and rice, for example, used to have thousands of species respectively. Today, only the high-yielding varieties exist, and the other species have gone extinct.
Science has concentrated on the loss of wild flora. It has failed to pay attention to cultivated plants. The matter of biodiversity in rainforests has been much of the concern, while biodiversity in agriculture just became an unattended aspect. The result is dismal. While rainforests merited much of the attention and study of scientists and researchers, food production has lost another safety net for peoples of the world.
This is what happens with a market-based economic principle. Farm production has largely followed the dictates of the market. When the general market favors a certain crop variety, farm production generally concentrates on such a variety. Also, science pours efforts into making the particular variety even more high-yielding through agricultural innovations. The old varieties are now just planted on special farms, while their produce is sold to specialized clientele usually at prices that are higher than those in general markets. Growers will eventually realize that with the changing of climate and soil conditions around the globe, planting a variety of crop species is more sustainable for food security on the planet.
Via BBC
