// Definition
In cannabis breeding, the gradual loss of desirable traits (alleles) from a gene pool through uncontrolled selection, chemical-assisted cultivation, and narrowing of genetic diversity, making those traits unrecoverable.
// From the Episode
Kevin Jodrey described how the use of fungicides, pesticides, and growth regulators in the 1990s 'changed the selection basis' — growers let chemicals do the work rather than selecting for natural resistance. Combined with THC-obsessed marketing ('19% world's strongest strain'), this compressed global gene pools and caused irreversible loss of unique regional varieties.