WHAT ARE THE UNDERLYING CAUSES OF THE LOSSES OF AGRICULTURAL BIODIVERSITY?
There are many causes of this decline, which has been accelerating throughout the 20th century in parallel with the demands of an increasing population and greater competition for natural resources. The principal underlying causes include: • The rapid expansion of industrial and Green Revolution agriculture, intensive livestock production, industrial fisheries and aquaculture (some production systems using genetically modified varieties and breeds) that cultivate relatively few crop varieties in monocultures, rear a limited number of domestic animal breeds, or fish for, or cultivate, few aquatic species. • Globalisation of the food system and marketing, and the extension of industrial patenting and other intellectual property systems to living organisms, which have led to the widespread cultivation and rearing of fewer varieties and breeds for a more uniform, less diverse but more competitive global market. As a consequence there has been: • Marginalisation of small-scale, diverse food
