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AS SOMEONE who spends far too much time reading academic journals and far too little talking to real people, I find it fascinating how different the actual meaning of terms can be to how they are often used in popular culture. It is like the Alanis Morissette interpretation of 鈥渋ronic鈥� compared with, well, what the word actually means. Ironically, kind of ironic, you might say.

Of all the terms with colourful interpretations that I see used in conversations, in the media and online, perhaps the most common is 鈥渕辞苍辞肠耻濒迟耻谤别鈥�, especially in the field of environmentalism. Far from this just being the boring pedantry of a science geek, as a passionate conservationist, I think it is crucial that we know what this word actually means if we are to avoid environmental own goals. So here we go鈥�

Monoculture is often used as a quick internet byword for 鈥渂ad鈥� when it comes to food and sustainability. Immediately bound up in narratives on the overuse of pesticides, fertilisers, water and land, the frequency with which biodiversity loss, depleted soils and industrial agriculture are used in the same sentence might lead you to think that they are synonyms for monoculture.

It can also be used as a sort of tribal label, too. If you follow social media skirmishes between carnivore and vegan diet activists 鈥� though it is probably best not to 鈥� you will find that monoculture is a word used by both sides to discredit opposing dietary views. Yet surprisingly, mixed into all of this are environmentalists using the term to actively push for changes that can be seen as being in direct opposition to their stated aims.

So what is monoculture in reality? Agriculturally, it just means an area composed of a single crop, rather than a mix of them. Instead of being a modern, industrial spectre, it is a practice that is as old as agriculture itself, and not without good reason. Focusing on just one species makes everything from sowing to harvesting easier and more efficient for the farmer, allowing much higher yields of crops from a given area of land.

This efficiency can often extend down to resources like fertilisers and pest control measures, meaning farmers can 鈥� theoretically, at least 鈥� use agrochemicals at the minimum levels they need to be effective. Yes, biodiversity in these fields is lower, but the higher yields and lower resources needed mean that significantly more mouths can be fed from far less land, leaving more space for nature elsewhere.

鈥淚nstead of a modern, industrial spectre, monoculture is a farming practice that is as old as agriculture itself鈥�

Outside of the world of theory, though, things get more complex. Putting all your agricultural eggs in one basket can leave farming systems and the societies built on them at perilous risk from external shocks, such as new pests and diseases. The knock-on effect can ironically mean more resources are used in a system that originally may have required less of them. This is before we even mention that just because technological efficiencies mean more land could be left to nature, it doesn鈥檛 mean political or economic decisions will let this actually happen. Humans are tricky like that.

If this wasn鈥檛 complex enough, there is significant leeway in how to interpret the scientific definition of monoculture in the first place. Technically, vast human-engineered grasslands dedicated solely to cattle production are monocultures. However, proponents of these will argue that the pasture the cows eat means they aren鈥檛. On the flip side, it is easy to say that never-ending sugar beet fields aren鈥檛 true monocultures, as these are grown on rotation, with crops like carrots or potatoes planted on alternate years.

Even the size of the plot makes a difference. You could easily describe the land of a small farm growing just one thing as a monoculture (and perceive it as 鈥渂ad鈥�), but not that of a larger farm growing mixed crops (thus thinking of it as 鈥済ood鈥� ), even if the size of land dedicated to each crop was larger than the smaller farm in its entirety.

So where does that leave us? Well, if you are looking for a neat label to use as a byword for 鈥渂ad鈥�, monoculture鈥檚 context-dependant definition and its mixture of benefits and drawbacks mean there is plenty of scope to use it to support your existing beliefs. It can be neatly deployed to back pretty much any foodie position, even contradictory ones and those that may actually go against the environmental goals you seek. But is that what being a conservationist is about?

If we really care about the environment, we should care about evidence. And in our beautifully complex world, there are very few absolutes. So let鈥檚 look at the full picture of what is in front of us on a case-by-case basis, even if it is hard, and not just (mis)use words like monoculture because it is easy.