Monocultures: What They Are and How They Affect Chester County

If asked to describe Chester County, most would describe, beautiful grass lawns, rolling pastures, farm fields with neat rows of soy or corn, and golf courses. These are all defining parts of our community’s natural beauty. What do grass lawns, corn and soy fields, and golf courses all have in common? They are all monocultures. For anybody who is not an environmental scientist, a monoculture is an area that only contains one type of crop and is ecologically harmful. So, why would this be harmful to the environment? After all, it is a green space, which should theoretically be beneficial to the ecosystem. However, there are many issues that surround monocultures that make them not sustainable.

To begin to talk about the effect of monocultures, we need to talk about what most people have right outside their own homes: grass. The grass that most people have in their lawns if not native to North America and requires extensive water and fertilizer to keep that famous verdant color we all love. But have you ever considered where the extra fertilizer that gets washed off goes? Not all the fertilizer that you put on your grass will get absorbed, and the rest will accumulate into runoff, finding its way into our pond, rivers, and ultimately the Chesapeake Bay. Most fertilizers are made up of Nitrogen, which is what makes grass grow so fast, however it doesn’t just have this effect on grass[i].

When this fertilizer runoff gets into waterways, it has the same effect on algae as it did the grass which causes something called an algal super bloom. In a process called eutrophication, the algae population continues to grow at an unnaturally fast rate. This growth causes a depletion of oxygen in that water source, killing the other plants and aquatic animals resulting in an ecologically dead aquatic ecosystem. A similar effect also happens with golf courses, but when a large area is covered by a shallow rooting grass, the other issue is that it replaces the natural land that was once there, killing off the biodiversity that once populated that ecosystem.

Another type of monoculture is the crop fields that surround us. Most of the crop fields in Chester County only plant one crop a year. This results in a loss of biodiversity as all previous plants are removed from the field to make room for the crop to be planted. Having only one crop affects soil quality as that crop absorbs all of one nutrient and floods the soils with excess of another. This creates a fundamental soil imbalance and causes soil exhaustion, which is when the soil in that area is no longer viable to support plant life[ii]. This not only affects environmental health, but also can cause socio-economic problems, as many communities in Chester County rely on the agriculture industry[iii].

With all these negative impacts of monocultures in our community, what can be done? Circling back to the topic of lawns, you can choose alternative options for the front of your home, such as a meadow, garden, or rocks. If you are not quite ready to ditch the grass, you can choose to use less fertilizer. Environmental progress is not always about taking dramatic measures, but also the small choices that add up.

As for crops, farmers can implement sustainable farming practices, such as crop rotation and on a smaller scale “food jungles”. A food jungle is a non-traditional method where many crops are grown together in a clump. This method allows the various crops to balance out the soil, which prevents soil exhaustion. A well-known example of a “food jungle” like method would be the three sisters crop grouping, where corn, beans, and gourds are all grown together. This method has been used in Chester County by Indigenous people for hundreds of years, and it actually improves the soil quality instead of draining it.

Endnotes

[i] Hobbie, S. E., Finlay, J. C., Janke, B. D., Nidzgorski, D. A., Millet, D. B., & Baker, L. A. (2017). Contrasting nitrogen and phosphorus budgets in urban watersheds and implications for managing urban water pollution. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(16), 4177–4182. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1618536114
[ii] Gomiero, T. (2019, June 28). Soil and crop management to save food and enhance food security. Retrieved June 28, 2019, from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B978012815357400002
[iii] Igbozurike, M. U. (1971). Against monoculture. The Professional Geographer, 23(2), 113–117. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0033-0124.1971.00113.x

References

• Gomiero, T. (2019, June 28). Soil and crop management to save food and enhance food security. Retrieved June 28, 2019, from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B978012815357400002X.
• Hobbie, S. E., Finlay, J. C., Janke, B. D., Nidzgorski, D. A., Millet, D. B., & Baker, L. A. (2017). Contrasting nitrogen and phosphorus budgets in urban watersheds and implications for managing urban water pollution. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(16), 4177–4182. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1618536114
• Igbozurike, M. U. (1971). Against monoculture. The Professional Geographer, 23(2), 113–117. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0033-0124.1971.00113.x
• Lipinski, W., Kornas, R., Wankowicz, W., Kepkowicz, A., Sykut, M., & Lipinska, H. (2017). IMPACT OF CUT GRASS OF LAWN CULTIVARS L. PERENNE ON INITIAL GROWTH OF OTHER GRASS SPECIES. Fresenius Environmental Bulletin, 26(11), 6652–6659. Retrieved October 2, 2022, from https://web-p-ebscohost-com.dickinson.idm.oclc.org/ehost/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=deb6693d-4c24-4f7c-a2bc-d6bc91af73d4%40redis&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#AN=125909240&db=8gh.

 

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