In the decades following the Green Revolution, industrial monoculture has quickly become the dominant model of agriculture in the United States. Despite its economic benefits and high crop yield, monocultures have diminished biodiversity and operate on massive amounts of agrochemical inputs, which have caused extensive ecological and human damage. In hopes of shifting agriculture to a greater moral standing, agro-ecological models have been formulated that incorporate ecosystem processes into farming. Agro-ecology has culminated in the practice of permaculture, which enables ecological regeneration while growing crops in a sustainable manner. Permaculture is in its early stages of development, and agricultural engineers must shift their efforts to improving its design and feasibility for widespread use.
View More Back to Our Roots: The Shift from Industrial Monoculture to Permaculture