The lowdown on topsoil: It's disappearing (Threat rivals global warming)

[nosmokes]

This article puts much stock in no-till methods which can most definitely be effective in stopping erosion, but the most effective is to keep topsoil a living organism of it's own, dense and heavy and rich w/organic nutrients and bacteria microfauna kept healthy by wise farming methods that include erosion control and don't use synthetic soil depleting fertilizers and pesticides but instead rely on organic materials and methods.
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original-seattlepi

The lowdown on topsoil: It's disappearing

Disappearing dirt rivals global warming as an environmental threat

By TOM PAULSON
P-I REPORTER

The planet is getting skinned.

While many worry about the potential consequences of atmospheric warming, a few experts are trying to call attention to another global crisis quietly taking place under our feet.

Call it the thin brown line. Dirt. On average, the planet is covered with little more than 3 feet of topsoil -- the shallow skin of nutrient-rich matter that sustains most of our food and appears to play a critical role in supporting life on Earth.

"We're losing more and more of it every day," said David Montgomery, a geologist at the University of Washington. "The estimate is that we are now losing about 1 percent of our topsoil every year to erosion, most of this caused by agriculture."

"It's just crazy," fumed John Aeschliman, a fifth-generation farmer who grows wheat and other grains on the Palouse near the tiny town of Almota, just west of Pullman.

"We're tearing up the soil and watching tons of it wash away every year," Aeschliman said. He's one of a growing number of farmers trying to persuade others to adopt "no-till" methods, which involve not tilling the land between plantings, leaving crop stubble to reduce erosion and planting new seeds between the stubble rows.

Montgomery has written a popular book, "Dirt," to call public attention to what he believes is a neglected environmental catastrophe. A geomorphologist who studies how landscapes form, Montgomery describes modern agricultural practices as "soil mining" to emphasize that we are rapidly outstripping the Earth's natural rate of restoring topsoil.

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complete article here

[tridim]

1. Plant hemp for victory! nt

[DS1]

2. We need to eat more meat!

:hide:

[zabet]

4. That is really not that silly.

Agriculture Vs. Rewilding
In order to understand the destructive nature of agriculture you must understand the phases of ecological succession. Ecological succession refers to the phases of growth from barren rock to a climax forest. The loss of biodiversity that creates a blank slate generally occurs through a disturbance such as fire, flood, volcanic eruptions, etc.
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Agriculture refers to a process of cultivation that simulates natural catastrophe (i.e. burning, flooding, tilling) to inspire (mostly) annual pioneer plants, specifically grasses (i.e. corn, wheat, rice). From its foundation agriculture causes a loss of biodiversity; agricultural subsistence means keeping the land in a fixed state of primary succession. Agriculturalists have a fondness for mono-cropping. Mono-cropping sets up the perfect environment for insects who love to eat that particular plant. Slowly but surely tilling the soil to create continuous primary succession exposes soil to wind and rain until the soil erodes away entirely. So much so that in order to grow crops, our fields require the importation of mineral resources known as fertilizer.

http://www.urbanscout.org/agriculture-vs-rewilding/

[Uncle Joe]

3. I imagine record breaking drought and flood could aggravate this situation as well.

Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, nosmokes.

[Mike03]

5. Kick and Rec. This is probably the most serious situation, outside of Global Warming,

that we face. And it's the reason that our vegetables now contain only a fraction of the nutrients they contained five decades ago.

[gg55]

11. That's the truth!

Shades of the Dustbowl and Great Depression. Hard times are coming around again.

Not only are agribiz fruits and vegies less nutritious now, but they are weirdly textured and tasteless. Must be the genetic mods such as pig's ears in my strawberries. :puke:

Give me an organic, sunripened fruit anyday of the week. I don't care how "imperfect" it looks.

[IDemo]

6. A lengthy and worthwhile read by Richard Manning: '"The Oil We Eat"

Manning speaks to this problem in an examination of modern agriculture, oil, and soil.

The "wheat-beef people" are still around, only now they are the HFCS-Big Mac people.

http://www.harpers.org/archive/2004/02/0079915

[nosmokes]

7. Thanks for that link IDemo!

Very informative article.Definitely worth reading

[Ghost Dog]

8. Rec 5. But you know it's not going to stop. So...

La nada coming soon.

[mzmolly]

9. We are no longer feeding the earth. We're using chemical farming methods for one.

"Organic farming methods also can reduce soil loss..." < Part of the solution is right here.

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v330/n6146/abs/330370a0.html

http://www.ota.com/organic/benefits/global.html

Oranic farming helps prevent topsoil erosion, improves soil fertility, protects groundwater, and conserves energy.

Nearly 40 percent of the world’s agricultural land is seriously degraded, undermining both present and future production capacity, according to scientists at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). Land degradation can have significant on- and off-site effects on income and environmental quality, and can take a number of forms, including soil nutrient depletion, agrochemical pollution, and soil erosion.

[NJCher]

10. and in the suburbs

People employ landscapers to blow the topsoil away.

A few years ago, the NY Times published an article about this subject and I responded to the article with a letter which they printed. In a nutshell, here's what I said:

It was looking like a drought year, so as I gardener, I was looking for any extra mulch I could get. When people put out their leaves at the curb, I would sometimes pick up the bags of leaves, take them home, and chop the leaves for mulch to use in the upcoming spring/summer.

What I found in the bags, however, was rich top soil--not just leaves. Sometimes it was as much as 70 per cent leaves, 30 per cent topsoil.

What people are effectively doing is paying to have their topsoil removed. The first inch or so is the humus that the plants depend on for their nutrients. They are starving their plants, all in the name of making the lawn look "neat."

Would we pay someone to come in and clean out the cabinets of food so our kids will starve?



Cher