Loss of genetic diversity in agriculture is leading us to a rendezvous with extinction--to the doorstep of hunger on a scale we refuse to imagine. To simplify the environment as we have done with agriculture is to destroy the complex interrelationships that hold the natural world together. Reducing the diversity of life, we narrow our options for the future and render our own survival more precarious.
Interpretation
The reduction of genetic diversity in agriculture threatens our survival and the environment.
Cary Fowler's quote warns that the loss of genetic diversity in agriculture is a critical issue that can lead to extinction and widespread hunger. By simplifying our agricultural practices, we disrupt the intricate relationships within nature, reducing the options for future resilience and jeopardizing our survival.
In practice
In a speech about sustainable farming practices, one could quote Fowler to emphasize the importance of genetic diversity.
I saw for the first time the earth's shape. I could easily see the shores of continents, islands, great rivers, folds of the terrain, large bodies of water. The horizon is dark blue, smoothly turning to black. . . the feelings which filled me I can express with one word-joy.
Of all celestial bodies within reach or view, as far as we can see, out to the edge, the most wonderful and marvellous and mysterious is turning out to be our own planet earth. There is nothing to match it anywhere, not yet anyway.
When nature made the blue-bird she wished to propitiate both the sky and the earth, so she gave him the color of the one on his back and the hue of the other on his breast.
Sustainable fishing is a fraud. It's a marketing term that really means 'business as usual.'
Sprigs of plum by the corner of the wall_x000D_ _x000D_ Are blooming alone in the cold;_x000D_ _x000D_ If not for the subtle fragrance drifting over_x000D_ _x000D_ Who could tell this from snow on the boughs.
You could look at something a hundred times from space, but the next time you come around the world, suddenly it's very different and gorgeous-looking, just because of the change of weather or the angle of the sun.
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