Monoculture is Death

If life is diversity, then monoculture is death, if not just dead boring. Can you say potato famine? Up to 1.5 million people dead, because of a monoculture! With crops, companies or cultures, lack of diversity is never a good idea. My girlfriend is a foodie and we were watching a Michael Pollan documentary, The Botany of Desire a few nights ago. I learned that 99.9 % of apple orchards, in the west, are monocultures, they don’t grow from seeds, they grow from cloning – watch the movie or read the book if you want to know more. We have similar issues with potatoes; most potatoes in the US are the same strain. Why is this bad?

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Innovation is a Virus

We have been told by patent holders, mostly large corporations, that intellectual property rights encourage innovation. Copyright laws have been extended from 14 years to up to life plus 70 years. Competition is said to accelerate creativity. Do these ideas serve innovation or corporate greed?

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