Henry and his father live in a large house in the countryside. Henry's father owns a respectable farm in Kansas. 

Dad, Im hearing a lot about something called 

Mono-crop farming. Oh and factory farming too.

Oh son we don't get into that business. We farm traditionally, it's better for us and the planet. Where'd you even hear about that? 

My friend told me about it; and Michael's dad says he makes a lot of money from it when I was over at his house

Well Mono-crop can make a lot of money in a small amount of time, but its really bad for the planet. The food that comes out is bad for us too!

Come son, I'll tell you about them on the farm. Might even get to see what I'm talking about. Close the door on your way out Henry. 

Section 1: 

Food Apartheids

This way Henry, were going to the office where the people involved with Mono-crop and factory farming negotiate. 

You see, these people don't care about the environmental harm that they are causing. I'll show you them later. For now, only about 10% of the profit actually goes to people like Michael's dad, the ones who own the factory/farm.

Doesn't really look like an office to me, but any place works I guess. I'll do some explaining before they get here. There are many places in the city where there aren't any fresh fruits or veggies for a good mile. 

Dad how does this even relate to mono-crop?

Now obviously we don't want any human being to have a hard time finding healthy food. These people do exactly that. Now some people who live in these places drive to farmer's markets, they find things there for a better price and fresh. 

Well good for them, but still, what does that have to do with mono-crop and factory farming dad?

I'm getting there son. Mono-crop and factory farmers mostly work with large-scale supermarkets. Now supermarkets compete with farmers markets. and when farmers markets fail it makes it even harder for struggling people to have access to fresh fruits and veggies.. This makes more of what we call Food Apartheids; to remind you, they're the places with no fresh food for a mile 

So all these people are doing is just adding chemicals to our food and making it harder to access for people in Food Apartheids. 

Hey Henry, your father told me about you. I'm Mr. W, I own a Mono-crop farm, and let me tell you about the dangers of Mono-crop. I'm planning to sell the land and find new land, make it a Traditional Organic farm, and use permaculture, which means using biodiversity to make the farm sustain itself

But first, we have to settle the financial side of things. I need 25% of the profit margin for the delivery of your items to the grocery store with my diesel trucks and marketing. The supermarket wants 65% as they are the ones who sell your items. So you're left with 10%. All you have to do is sign the paper Mr. W. 

See son, this is what I talked about. Mono-crop and factory farmers don't market their items at farmers market. Basically being bystanders to the Food Apartheid problem. If you think about it, they make it worse because they drag the money away from funding farmers markets. They don't help with Food Waste either. 40-50% of all food in the world is wasted, a fair share of this comes from the waste that supermarkets produce when they fail to sell items 

Section 2:

Disease 

Spreading 

Look over the fence Henry, all of these plants are genetically modified. Which means that we took them to a lab and edited their DNA. The danger with this is that we make them all with the same DNA. So if one gets infected, it's likely they'll all get infected. Now, this happened to my friend's farm in Italy. In total 21 million olive trees were killed in Italy by the same disease. 

Now to lessen the likelihood of something like this happening to my farm. I use pesticides, look to your right, the purple stuff, we spray that on the plants and it keeps them safe. However, this leaks into them and makes them less safe for us and the bees. 

Well Henry, we get a shipment of bees every once in a while to pollinate the crops and flowers. Theres some things that we just can't live without, one of those things are bees. 

Mono-crop farming affects bees? 

Section 3 : 

The Bees 

Now don't be frightened by 'em, Henry. They're friendly to you if you're friendly to them. As I said, bees are insects we cant live without, 3 quarters of the world's food relies on bees and pollination! We humans even tried replacing bees out with pollination by doing it with our own hands, but they're the best at their job, we didn't get anywhere near their level. 

Well, if the bees land on any of the crops with pesticides on them, they'll likely die or not be able to catch up with their group. They also become infected with parasites more often because we bring a lot of them to such a small space. It's more easily transferred when there are a lot of bees in a small space. 

So whats hurting them on this farm if they're doing their job and all? 

There's one bee that just got left behind. The pesticides interfere with there cognitive ability and they basically get too dizzy. Also if they drink any water here, it's likely that the pesticides seeped into the ground. That means it'll have the same effect on them and they'll likely die. 

I'm selling this place after finding out all it's hidden dangers. 

Make your choice Henry, do you still want to get into this type of farming?

I think i'll stick to our farming methods and support farmers markets. Thanks Mr. W!

    Works Cited

“How Much of the World’s Food Production Is Dependent on Pollinators?” Our World in Data, 2021, ourworldindata.org/pollinator-dependence. Accessed 26 Apr. 2023.

Jacobo, Julia. “Monoculture Farming Is Another Way Modern-Day Agriculture Is Killing Bees, Scientists Say.” ABC News, ABC News, 12 Oct. 2021, abcnews.go.com/International/monoculture-farming-modern-day-agriculture-killing-bees-scientists/story?id=80536659. Accessed 26 Apr. 2023.

Jastrzebski, Adam. “Interview with a Food Expert.” American School of Dubai , 24 Apr. 2023. Accessed 28 Apr. 2023.

Kogut, Peter. “Monoculture Farming in Agriculture Industry.” EOS Data Analytics, EOS Data Analytics, 20 Oct. 2020, eos.com/blog/monoculture-farming/. Accessed 26 Apr. 2023.

Petroni, Agostino. “The Plan to Save Italy’s Dying Olive Trees with Dogs.” Bbc.com, BBC, 18 Jan. 2023, www.bbc.com/future/article/20230111-the-super-sniffer-dogs-saving-italys-dying-olive-trees. Accessed 26 Apr.