>what about the large chunk of the ecosystem you're engineering which is not directly tied into commercial interests, but on which we still depend? Going even

>what about the large chunk of the ecosystem you're engineering which is not directly tied into commercial interests, but on which we still depend? Going even further, what about the side-effects on the very same field? Pesticides kill insects, but they kill both beneficial (pest eating) and pestilent insects. The problem is the bad guys can bounce back faster - picture the deer population vs. wolf population. This means that, paradoxically, the use of pesticides now leads to a greater need for pesticides later. The solution is to step back, recognize this negative feedback loop, and address the root causes of pest invasion: dead soil and loss of biodiversity. This is where techniques like cover cropping, interplanting, and inoculating with compost (soil microorganisms) come in. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cover_crop https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cover_crop http://extension.illinois.edu/soil/SoilBiology/soil_food_web.htm http://extension.illinois.edu/soil/SoilBiology/soil_food_web...