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Homogeneity: Why it is a bad thing.

First off what does it mean? It is derived from the word homogeneous. In Latin it breaks down to Homo = the same, and gen = kind/race etc. So basically it means everything is the same. Why is this a bad thing, first off its boring. Why would you want everything to be the same, variety is the spice of life. Secondly it is dangerous. The whole pet food scare is a prime example of how our (and our pets) food supply has become too homogeneous.

In the fields across the breadbasket of America almost all of the corn being grown is identical to the plant next to it, same goes for the wheat, and the soy. Every plant being the same as the one next to it allows the farmer to estimate how much water he will need, how much corn he will have at the end of the season, and he can use the same fertilizer for his entire corn field. All sounds like a good thing right? Maybe, but it is really dangerous. The next year the farmer plants the same kind of corn again, and there is a big outbreak of a corn fungus that could destroy his entire crop. Well chances are that it will destroy his entire crop because each plant is the exact same as its neighbor. If he had planted multiple (lets say 6) different types of the corn , then maybe only the first 2 types would succumb to the corn fungus, and the remaining 4 types would survive because they have a natural immunity. This is why homogeneity is bad. If one thing happens we could lose all of our corn, or our wheat or our soy, and these crops and the backbone of our food system. It is a very dangerous system.

We can see some current evidence of this. Even our Pet food supply is becoming too homogeneous. It turns out that the store brand and the name brand are being made by the same people at the same place, and then just labeled differently. The pet food maker gets all of their wheat gluten from a few places and then uses it in all of the foods they make. Now lots of pet food is not safe, because only one company is making it, instead of a variety of companies making it. See what I mean?

America is becoming more homogeneous everyday, and it is not a good thing. You can go to almost every town and eat at the same restaurants: McDonalds, Wendys, Taco bell, Applebees, etc. You can shop at the same stores: Sams, Lowes, Target, Wal-Mart. It would appear like you never left home. Think about it, when you go on a Vacation, you want to try something new, eat somewhere different, well that is an example of you wanting to have variety. Your natural instinct is kicking in. So try something new, and look for the variety in life.

ian