Chemical pollution

Pests and diseases more easily destroy monoculture crops as they lack the resistance a diverse plant and animal population would have provided. Those destructive agents stay in monocultural fields longer because they find them a perfect home. 

Farmers who practice monoculture agriculture tend to use pesticides  and herbicides excessively. Some parasites even resist the pesticides used against them, passing on the immunity to their offspring, so farmers use even more potent pesticides.

Pesticides, insecticides, rodents, and herbicides contain toxic chemicals harmful to humans and wildlife. These chemicals contaminate the soil and groundwater, enter water bodies, and become air pollutants. 

Weak ecosystems

Agricultural ecosystems typically lack the resilience that undisturbed environments show in the face of biological and geological challenges. Monoculture, especially, creates fragile ecosystems.

For example, natural environments have biocontrol agents that control plant diseases and pests. Monoculture does not allow for diverse species to serve as control agents. Therefore, one pathogen can wipe out acres of monoculture farms in a blink.

Furthermore, monoculture fields cannot withstand weather events like fires, floods, and erosion due to a lack of diversity in root length and canopy. One type of root also means water uptake occurs at one level in the ground. In cases of severe drought, deep roots will require more irrigation, straining water resources. 

Nutrition and health 

There are over 350,000 known plant species, of which around 7,000 to 30,000 are considered edible and have been used for food and agriculture. Yet, only about 255 plants currently make up the bulk of the human diet worldwide1. We lack food diversity because monoculture prioritizes the production of certain crops over others based on profitability.

Over the last century, we have lost more than three-quarters of the genetic diversity in crops. Because monoculture has restricted us to a few options, we may be missing out on fantastic health and nutritional benefits.

Another concern monoculture raises is the effect of crop genetic modification. Despite bans on GMO foods, we have modified many of the crops we consume today for hardiness, higher yield, and easier processing. Both corn and soybeans are popular GMO crops.

Economical effects of monoculture

Here are some economic disadvantages of monocropping: