'nearly sterile fields of soft white wheat'In my opinion i would say that no country is immune from the monoculture way our world has become.  Often because we want to do better, get bigger, drive for more profitability, while consumers want cheaper and safer produce.We have created monoculture fields of insects too, then we try to control them.  I will never forget a photo that was put up as a slide at the pollinator conference at Penn state university a few years back. It was a tractor covered in slugs.  They were immune for want of a better word to the seed coating, but the birds that ate the slugs were not. So the story was the farmers had to modify to control the slugs.Bout 15 years ago our electrician talked about the Dairy deserts being created in our area, with the mass conversion of beef and sheep farms into Dairy farming when the boom was at its best.  Hedges ripped out, farming right to the boundaries, even the odd beehives being asked to be removed as they took up pasture space. Grass/milk is white gold.Of more recent times riparian planting is a requirement to contain nutrients on farm from entering waterways, including swamps, streams and rivers. Plantings acting as a filtration. Lots and lots of plantings. Native trees and shrubs, flaxes etc.Now the farmers tell us they are just corridors for pests, we however observe a lot more insects, flowers to be pollinated, food and nesting for birds and insects, maybe just a restoration to the landscape.Conservation wise in NZ we are reintroducing native birds etc back into native bush/forest after prediator control work is undertaken. Those ripiarian plantings also act as bird corridors between major bush areas, not just for local insect populations.Is it perfect? No but it is a start.  CheersFionaKing CountryNZSent from Samsung tablet.
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