When I grow the nine crops Navdanya in my field, different insects feed on different plants. They have their own web. So the spiders and the lady beetles will control the aphids. I don’t have to...if I have a monoculture and I have aphids then I have to poison them, but all I need to do is have another plant which supports another insect. And biodiversity is the most effective pest control system, most effective soil fertility system. Come to weeds, when I grow biodiversity, that is the weed system. Its naked soil that is what allows weeds to grow. Monocultures must leave soil exposed, so monocultures designed for chemicals, which is an external input system has giving us all the problems in agriculture including greenhouse gases that are 50 percent of the climate problem. 50 percent of the climate change problem comes from industrial farming. 100 percent of a solution to climate change comes from biodiversity, and biodiversity based organic farming.
Dr Vandana Shiva, Paris COP 21
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