Biodiversity | Commercial Agriculture Is Detrimental to Biodiversity

Snaking along the border of Minnesota and the Dakotas, the Red River Valley has long been one of North America’s leading grain-producing regions. Blessed with fertile prairie soils deep enough “to bury a man standing,” Red River farmers have intensified their production in recent decades, and planted more and more of their land to just two crops, wheat and barley.

Such specialization is supposed to be the key to success in the brave new world of multinational agribusiness. Yet the last few years have been anything but bountiful for most Red River farmers. In the early...

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