AP Environmental Science

Answer: B - The use of pesticides and practices like monoculture decrease biodiversity.

Key Takeaway: Modern agricultural practices like monoculture and the usage of pesticides and herbicides greatly reduce biodiversity. Plants that are non-native to a given environment and produce larger-than-normal harvests, especially, require more pesticides than all others to survive and thrive in an environment. These plants are usually more susceptible to bugs or disease, as they haven’t been able to build up a natural tolerance to the environment. All of these modern practices are designed to produce a maximum yield for crops, but agribusiness is starting to come under a lot of pressure as we start to see the cost of having such a large, unregulated food supply.