Biro: Interstellar and Monocrops

Interstellar and Monocrops

How Small-Scale Solutions Ruined Everything

By: Sami Biro

In the movie Botany of Desire, Michael Pollen discusses the idea of monoculture, which is the cultivation of only one crop. All across the United States we see farms devoted to only one thing, be it apples, corn, soy beans, or any other crops. With monocultures, more often than not, all of the crops are clones of the same plant, which means that genetically, they are identical. This seems ideal for farmers because the plants are predictable and easier to control. The farmer will not end up with surprisingly small or misshapen crops if they are all genetic copies. The issue here is that when we use the same exact genetic blueprint for every plant, the plants have no chance to evolve. They are frozen in a sense, meanwhile the insects, diseases, and fungus that could harm them are always evolving. Since all of the crops are exactly the same, if the insects that eat them or diseases that plague them evolve enough to destroy one plant, they have evolved enough to ruin the entire field and all of the plants that reside in it. The crops are then at risk and humans have to step in and genetically modify them or spray them with pesticides to keep them safe. An example given by Botany of Desire is the New Leaf Potato, which was created in a lab by Monsanto. Its leaves have the ability to kill the potato beetles that want to eat it. Even if we keep updating our crops and forcing evolution on them, their natural enemies are evolving too, and sooner or later, we might lose all of our crops. A dystopia awaits us if we cannot learn how to farm more effectively, as shown in the movie Interstellar. 

In the movie Interstellar, the world is running out of food. Dust bowls rule the mid-west and the south, as depicted in this image from the movie.  Potatoes have been extinct for seven years, okra is due to go extinct in the coming year, and corn is all that is left to feed the people. Why is this happening? There is a great deal of speculation, but the main consensus about why all of this is happening in the movie is monocultures. (This image to the left, along with other scenes from Interstellar that are used in this post, are found at this travel site)

All of the potatoes were wiped out by a blight, and it evolved and morphed to take out okra as well. With less crops for people to eat, the production of crops for feeding livestock is decreased as well, and soon meat becomes nothing more than a luxury. The natural enemies of the crops keep evolving while the crops themselves stay the same, as Pollen describes in his movie. This means they are no match for the extremely aggressive blight.
Not only does the blight destroy food, it also kills other plants. Since plants make oxygen and the blight is killing them all, not only is it starving humanity, but also suffocating the Earth.
What happens, though, when our stable and reliable agriculture industry fails us and we have to scramble to feed everyone? The main character's lifestyle and the lives of everyone in Interstellar show us what life might look like if food is suddenly scarce.

The main character, Cooper, is a corn farmer, as are all of his neighbors. All around his house and as far as the eye can see, there is nothing but corn, as seen in the image to the right. Cooper's son is told by a test in high school that he will become a farmer, and most of the children are told the same thing. Humanity has gone back in time to the early days of agriculture in this sense. With the Agricultural Revolution, farms and crops made it possible for some people to move away from finding food and towards other occupations. Society advanced quickly once people did not have to focus all of their energy on finding food, and once they moved to cities instead of farming, the Industrial Revolution came along. In Interstellar, food is no longer something to be taken for granted, and students are no longer encouraged to get a higher education. That is just too frivolous, and farming is more practical. Cooper, who was once on track to be an astronaut, had to change his life as well and become a farmer. His focus went from exploring the galaxy to farming to keep people alive, and this shows the extreme backwardness of the world in Interstellar. This is also shown in how small NASA is in Interstellar. Humanity was forced to give up on scientific discoveries because of the food crisis in the same way that Cooper gave up being an astronaut to become a farmer. When food sources are no longer secure and reliable, then society becomes frozen where it is and even back tracks. 

Another terrifying idea of what it means to lose our stable sources of food comes when Cooper meets what remains of NASA and finds out that humanity has no chance against the blights. The few remaining members of NASA decide to embark on one last-ditch effort to save humanity- they want to find a planet that can host humans where humanity can start over. Certain scientists in the movie have already gone to planets that may be able to sustain human life, such as the ice planet shown on the left, and Cooper has to go to the planet with the best statistics. On the chosen planet, humanity would start over, leaving the blight behind on Earth to ravage the land and life there. Could you imagine a society on a planet like the ice planet that Cooper visits? Could you imagine humanity starting over there? Could you imagine leaving our home behind to suffer and die? Unfortunately, it is revealed that the people left on Earth will never be able to reach the new planet and are all going to die of starvation, if not oxygen depletion. All of the currently living humans are fated to die with the Earth. The ship Cooper is on carries thousands of fertilized human eggs, and Cooper and his crew are told they will have to raise the children that will carry on humanity's legacy. 

In the future that Interstellar shows us, human society rewinds once our food begins to run out, and ultimately, everyone will die. A review of the movie in the New York Times describes this as "a fatalistic society that has traded large ambition for small-scale problem solving and ultimate resignation." The government and scientists in Interstellar use band aids to attempt to survive the blight in the same way that we today use band aids to solve the current issues with monocultures, and so I think this is potentially a very likely outcome for us. The New York Times article describes the movie as "a plea for forgiveness on behalf of our foolish, dreamy species. We messed everything up, and we feel really bad about it. Can you please give us another chance?" They are asking for forgiveness as they put the band aids on, and it is assumed that it is too late for humanity to fix their mistakes. What can forgiveness do when people are starving? 

What happens when our food sources become scarce? The future Interstellar shows us is not the future I want for us, so instead of dwelling on the somewhat apocalyptic future demonstrated in the movie, I would like to ask a question that we ourselves now can answer. Instead of treating the symptoms or putting a band aid on the issue, I would like to look into how we can cure the disease all together. How can we prevent Interstellar's food crisis from happening to us?

Within the context of Interstellar, we see just how powerless we are against the constant evolution of the Earth, and as Pollen suggests, maybe the solution is to stop monocultures all together. Rotating crops from season to season, or even year to year, would help keep the dust bowl scenario from happening, as well as terracing. The image to the right shows what terracing looks like in Peru, and the website where the image can be found gives examples of terracing all over the world. One example would be how the Incan farmers "managed to turn rugged landscape into farmable land capable of sustaining the large population" using terracing. A quick look at this Wikipedia article describes how the ways we currently cultivate the land leads to dust bowls. The article describes the measures taken to prevent dust bowls from occurring. "President Roosevelt ordered the Civilian Conservation Corps to plant a huge belt of more than 200 million trees from Canada to Abilene, Texas to break the wind, hold the water in the soil, and hold the soil itself in place. The administration also began to educate farmers on soil conservation and anti-erosion techniques, including crop rotation, strip farming, contour plowing, terracing, and other improved farming practices."  The earth would have a chance to replenish itself, and planting more than just one crop would help with the situation as well. If farmers did not have to focus on just one crop but were able to plant other crops as well, then if one crop was struck with disease or did not yield enough produce, the farmer could still survive. 

Another solution would be to stop cloning plants. Instead of constantly having to come up with our own evolutionary advances, we should let nature do the evolving. Let the crops evolve. Stop using genetic copies of these plants and use seeds instead so that the plants may have a chance to keep up with their natural enemies. Relying on monocultures is like putting all your eggs in one basket, and that is a gamble we really cannot afford to make. The image to the left lists other problems that arise when we clone plants, and the site it comes from has an informational video about cloning plants for those who wish to learn more.

Interstellar shows us a very realistic future for humanity if we stay on this path of monocultures and genetic modifications, and that future bleak. Having to give up on the Earth and move to another planet is not the ideal future we hope for, but coupled with Global Warming, monocultures are ruining our home. If all of the oxygen and food sources on Earth disappear, not only are humans going to suffer, but so are all of the animals and plants that call this planet home. We in more developed countries will be forced to revert to the days where food was not as easy to come by as it is now, and our society will not be able to advance once we put all of our focus and efforts into feeding the masses. Not only will society in developed countries be hindered, but cultures that do not participate in monocultures and already have less easy access to food will feel the consequences when the air is no longer breathable. Unless we want to doom everyone- humans, animals, and the entire world itself- to a horrible fate of starvation and suffocation, something needs to change. We need to stop saying "sorry" after the fact and attempting to solve our problems without looking at the underlying causes. Unlike in Interstellar, it is not too late for us. If we can fix these things now, we will never need to say "sorry" in the way that the characters of Interstellar and all of those living in the Interstellar world do. We have a chance to cure our illness rather than just treat the symptoms. Plants need to be allowed to evolve, and we need to stop hindering them. We have to come up with better farming techniques, and we need to actually implement them. If plants cannot evolve, society cannot evolve, and if we cannot change our ways of farming, we cannot change the fatalistic society focused on band aids that is ultimately our fate.

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