A soil crisis in the offing?

[MadHound]

For the past five plus years, the number of acres devoted to corn production has gone through the roof. Acreage that was once considered marginal, or that had been allowed to lie fallow in CRP and other such programs is now being brought back into corn production. All of this is due to the increasing use of corn to make ethanol, a gasoline additive that lowers your gas mileage, but makes vast profits for corporate farmers and other big corporate players such as ADM and Monsanto.

Now the latest twist is coming into play, namely cotton. Due to the ongoing war in Pakistan, along with the revolution in Egypt, the US is stepping in to make up for the shortfall in cotton production worldwide. The South, the traditional cotton producing area of the US, simply can't increase cotton production that much, due to the fact that four hundred years of ongoing cotton growing has worn out the soil, making much of it unfit for growing cotton, or any other crop for that matter.

So cotton production has turned to a region long associated with food production, the Midwest, Bread Basket to the world. In Missouri, cotton production has gone up ten percent in the past couple of years. In Kansas, where wheat is king, twenty thousand acres were devoted to cotton production last year, and more will be planted in cotton this year. Overall, cotton production in the US has risen twelve percent from 2009 to 2010.

This is not good news. The US is now putting an emphasis on planting crops that are simply unsustainable, and if this continues, will lead to a collapse of soil fertility. Corn and cotton both are quite hard on the soil. They suck nutrients out of the ground at a prodigious rate, leaving the soil exhausted. Worse yet, especially in the case of corn, farmers are foregoing their traditional crop rotation schedule, one that has traditionally, and successfully, been used to restore soil fertility. Instead, with the big money coming in from both corn and cotton, farmers are planting the same crop, in the same fields, year in, year out.

This simply isn't sustainable. It was due in large part to such practices that the Dust Bowl developed during the Twenties and Thirties. Cotton has been such a brutal crop in the South that there are acres and acres that are still unsuitable for growing anything a century and a half after they have been forced out of production.

If we continue to go down this road, our croplands are going to die. Dead, infertile, good for nothing more than weeds and fodder for goats. Our food supply will plummet and there will be food shortages that will ravage not just the US, but the world.

We have got to start petitioning the Obama administration to start implementing guidelines for crop rotation and how often a crop can be consecutively planted in the same field. We have got to stop this ethanol madness. And we have absolutely got to go back to sustainable agricultural practices, including traditional crop rotation. Otherwise, within a generation, our soil is going to be dead and we'll no longer be able to feed ourselves.

[no_hypocrisy]

1. The Dustbowl from The Thirties was created by planting the same crops repeatedly

on the same soil instead of rotating crops.

[MadHound]

2. Yep, exactly what is going on now,

I see it out here where I live, corn, year in, year out.

And now we're starting to ramp up cotton production as well. This is not a good thing.

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. AND from plowing, letting the exposed soil lie there, where the wind would blow it.

I cannot believe that after all these years, crop rotation is being ignored.

[csziggy]

14. No till agriculture would work for large monoculture farming

And save the companies money - it they would change their ways. That would cut down on soil erosion and on the need for herbicides but would need crop rotation to prevent diseases.

But the large corporations and chemical companies do not believe in these "new fangled" systems, even the ones that have been advocated for over a hundred years and that have been proven to work.

[Kolesar]

4. Your cotton comments read like John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath"

One of the men comment that cotton growing plays out the soil.

[jwirr]

11. That is one of the reasons that farmers used to plant soy beans in

the corn fields every so many years. Soy beans not only feed the world but they also feed the soil. Greed trumps lessons learned from history every time. Edited to ask what area they planning to plant cotton in? Your info does not indicate where you live.

[Pharaoh]

5. So tired of this

"We have got to start petitioning the Obama administration to start implementing guidelines for crop rotation and how often a crop can be consecutively planted"

Why the fuck do we constantly have to petition our government to do the right thing. The whole system is corrupt to the core.

[MadHound]

6. Because the only other alternative is a revolution,

And while I think that one is coming, and perhaps even necessary, I would like to forestall it for as long as possible, for it will be a brutal, savage affair that will devolve quickly into a civil war that pits brother against brother, killing millions, and will probably signal an end to civilization as we know it.

[jwirr]

12. All they have to do is use the subsidies to implement this idea. They

used to reward conservation practices. It worked then.

[DCKit]

7. Bad enough, but the use of high amounts of pesticides and herbicides on cotton...

are going to poison those areas.

[MadHound]

8. Same with corn,

Corn, and the soil underneath it, has been getting annual dosages of poison for decades now. It gave us the Green Revolution a half century ago, but now it is just poisoning the soil.

[Melinda]

9. Compost, compost, compost...

This country, all its regions and all its peoples produce huge amounts of garden and household waste (organic matter); compost it and amend the soil. Heck, I even grow directly in compost - no soil needed. Sustainability includes composting too!

Instead of petitioning Obama to solve our problems, we need start action at the community level. Get involved, organize, run for local office... build a block, combine those blocks, and change this world.

Oh, and don't forget to compost along the way!! :)

[jwirr]

13. I agree this is the direction we need to move in but we are talking

about huge farms that grow 100s and 100s acres of corn. They do plow the left over stalks etc back into the soil but it is not enough compare to what the corn takes out of the soil. Years ago when farms were reasonable sizes and the products diversified the farmers would use manure spreaders to scatter the manure for their various animals on the soil to build it up but now most farms to not have enough animals to do that on their huge farms.

One of my favorite things to do when I was small was to ride out into the field on the high seat of the spreader pulled by horses with my grandfather. He would let he hold the reins and I thought I was driving! Now I realize that the horses knew just what they were supposed to do.

[Javaman]

15. Composting should be manditory.

Those who have backyards should have gardens and compost, those who don't, that compost goes to the farms.

It will eventually happen, but why not start now?

We live in such a wasteful nation.

[kentauros]

16. I'd like to see that happen, too,

but you'd have to impose hefty fees or fines on those obstinate ones that flat out refuse to do any of the 'right' things like this. Still, there are machines that municipalities can buy for operating a compost heap, usually in a line (the 'turning' machine goes down the line, flipping the pile over on top of itself.)

Large cities would have to find ways to manage that in smaller amounts, and I'm not so sure it's very feasible for cities in the millions of population. However, they can promote home and community gardens as well as composting. That would cut down on their waste-stream significantly.

[kentauros]

10. This is why I buy organic.

Most people think the only reasons to buy organic is to have food that tastes better, isn't poisoned by pesticides still on the product and so forth. Those are certainly reasons to buy, too, and partly why I prefer organic. But, soil health is really at the top of my criteria when buying anything organic (including textiles and soaps.) It's really the way to go for everything we grow.

Not that this would ever happen, but I'd like to replace the USDA with the Rodale Institute. They understand this problem and what to do about it.

One thing about weeds: they are soil rejuvenators. While it's good to plant nitrogen-fixing plants in your fallow fields, it's really best to get the soil tested first, and then plant for all the other nutrients your soil is lacking. "Weeds" do just that, and can even be used in companion-planting for similar reasons. There's an online book about weeds out there that is worth reading, even if it might seem out of date at first. It's basically ignored information that's still viable today :)

Weeds - Guardians of the Soil by Joseph A. Cocannouer

[felix_numinous]

17. Growing hemp

would be a wise plant to heal depleted soil, prevent erosion and----> *** eats up nuclear waste***, besides it's other benefits to the economy. Just saying.

http://www.hemp.net/news/9901/06/hemp_eats_chernobyl_waste.html

[kentauros]

19. I've been wanting to discuss the bioremediation uses of hemp,

but felt it was too soon for that topic. Still, when Japan's reactors have been shut down and entombed, then I hope they begin bioremediation of the surrounding land. Certain kinds of mushrooms and fungi will also help.

The other thing is that while hemp can soak up toxic substances, such as radioactive material, it's still in the plant; it's not "transmuting" it, just storing it. So, they'll still have to do something about all those plants full of toxic material. They do facilitate clean-up, but I don't know what happens to the plants after harvest.

[felix_numinous]

20. I had not heard about mushrooms and fungi,

before. Using plants to detoxify soil and possibly water too would at least improve the environment--then we would have to isolate the contaminated plants and deal with them separately. I think this is in our future.

This is a fascinating subject, and vital that we learn as much as we can about detoxifying our environment, since it does not appear the corporations are going to slow down anytime soon. We are being left with the clean up.

[kentauros]

21. Paul Stamets is an expert on fungi

and details a study done on "mycoremediation" about halfway down in this article:
Mycova: Helping the Ecosystem through Mushroom Cultivation

I know he's done a TED speech, too, as well as being involved in the Bioneers conferences. I haven't done any more research on the topic, but at least I know Stamets still is :)

I'm fascinated by this subject, too. There's so much potential for natural remediation, if we'd just get it done and shove the corporations aside before they use their chemical means of remediation. Perhaps "guerrilla remediation" is what's needed here ;)

[felix_numinous]

22. Yes! Paul Stamets has some great ideas on reforestation

...'guerilla remediation' -I'm all over that :) There was a time when I was saving herb, food and rare tree seeds so I could help preserve them. It still is a dream of mine to do that.

TED is a good remedy for all the bad news.

[kentauros]

24. I don't smoke anything,

but had at one time come up with the idea of putting 'hemp' seeds in some potting soil and then into the payload stage of an Estes rocket. Fire that into the clear-cuts of the big paper/pulp companies, wait a few weeks or months, and then turn them in for 'hemp' cultivation :P

At the very least, it would be a way of stemming erosion on clear-cut land :)

I think Rodale Press has books on seed saving. You might look for that, and start saving again.

Oh, one form of compost that could be used on big farms is what's used to grow large-scale mushrooms. I recall from an editorial in Organic Gardener that you could buy used mushroom compost by the dump-truck load because they had to use 'fresh' compost for each new batch of mushrooms. And after rereading that article on myco-remediation, I'd say they could rejuvenate their soils by adding the proper fungi to the mix, too.

[felix_numinous]

25. Thanks

for the seed saving book idea. Had to laugh about the rocket idea, I have known people who would actually try that out :)

With all the plant extinctions going on, it can't hurt to save seeds and help with the distribution. I am glad to hear I am not the only one interested in this.

I hope you start a thread on this subject :)

[kentauros]

26. Glad you liked my ideas

;)

As for saving seeds, I know there are various universities doing just that, to keep a record of the plant genome around the world. I remember Seeds of Change used to offer heirloom seeds, but I'm not sure if they still do. I know their seeds are free of GM plants, though.

Another cool site local to Texas (and selling to the world) is Native American Seed. I know that if I ever have a lawn, I'll replace it with one of the native ground covering grasses he offers :)

I'll have to do a little more research, but I could have a thread on phyto-remediation sometime tomorrow :)

[snagglepuss]

18. K & R nt

[upi402]

23. All of human-kind's greatness rests on a few inches of topsoil

Without topsoil we would all be fertilizer.

It's not that we will repeat the errors of that past due to ignorance. It's because we worship money and sneer at sustainability because it's not an immediate cure-all - or gets in the way of money grubbing.