Symphony of Soil – Blog 9
Soil has the miraculous capability to grow the food that every animal directly or indirectly depends on. Since the beginning of civilization, humans have been damaging soil with harmful farming techniques. A lot of the past’s mistakes can be blamed to ignorance, but in today’s age we know better and have the tools to be better. In this paper, I argue that shortcuts to mass food production are what is contributing to today’s soil degradation.
Farming is a natural process that involves planting seeds in the ground and allowing ecosystem services to nourish the seeds into fruits and vegetables. However, over the past decades more people have been using shortcuts for faster and larger yields. Shortcuts include the use of fertilizer, pesticide, and insecticide. Sadly, the use of these products are only short-term solutions that end up slowly degrading the soil and infecting consumers over the years. Furthermore, they have become unsustainable and unnecessary. For example, artificial fertilizers are only inserting chemicals into the ground. “It’s like instead of feeding your children a balanced diet, let’s just feed them vitamins.”[i] Artificial fertilizer also becomes costly on the farmer and environment because most of the nitrogen is lost and not absorbed by the plant. The excess nitrogen is then leaked into the water supply, eutrophication occurs in lakes, dead zones in the ocean, and nitrogen is released into the air. For instance, corn production is the prime crop causer for the dead zone. However, fertilizer is only one of the many shortcuts. Insecticides and herbicides are also leading to a downward chemical cycle. For instance, farmers are using a deadly cocktail of pesticides that are killing keystone insect species. The use of insecticides is one of the prevailing theories on why we see diminishing populations of pollinators. Without pollinators, we will see a massive decline in food sources for the species of this planet. Meanwhile, dung beetle are also known to be affected by parasiticide. My favorite insect – the dung beetle – is known for regenerating soil and increasing soil productivity. Overall, shortcuts that include intensive chemical use can only maximize profits for so long. At first, these shortcuts seems like a cure all, when in reality they are amplifying problems for the future.
There are various studies and scientific literature on sustainable and efficient farming. It was found that compost has the capability to renew and regenerate soil. For instance, once the organic material is disposed, it can then be reused as natural fertilizer in farms. Compost helps feed soils starving for organic matter. After two to three years of using compost, the soil will change because it now has organic material. Meanwhile, artificial fertilizer is no longer needed, because compost is providing the extra nutrients the soil can use. Although compost is an extra step, it will lead soil to regenerate at its own pace within its natural cycle. Speaking long-term, there should be no problem with farming every year and growing yields of crops. In Burlington Vermont, they started compositing and spreading the compost throughout fields. It changed the farming culture in Vermont, because fields were no longer infertile but now rich with nutrients. Currently, Burlington produces about 10% of its own food. Many old cities have forgotten that land next to rivers still have soil and can be brought back to life. Composting is certainly not a shortcut, but the extra work yields the best results for long-term sustainable farming.
Excessive irrigation is another massive problem involved with soil. For instance, many people excessively water their crops, instead of focusing on techniques that will improve the health and water retention of soil. In farming, it is more important and effective to focus on soil retention rather than throwing copious amounts of water at the problem. For example, in India there was a “drought” occurring that left land parched and infertile. However, it was found that there was no drought because rainfall was the same as the prior year. The land was dry because the soil retention was different from the previous year. For instance, the current year they planted new seeds that lessened the amount of straw, thus diminishing available organic matter in the soil. Without organic matter, the soil was unable to retain water properly and the top soil was being washed away during rainfall. This created infertile soil, soil erosion, and an inability to retain water. The soil was redesigned and changed the amount of water needed for crops to grow. This could have been prevented if people focused on the health of the soil, instead of other factors. Another one of the major impacts of irrigation on soil is salinization. Salinization can occur because water contains low levels of saline. When a lot of water is evaporating, then a lot of the salt is being left behind in the soil. This changes the entire pH of the soil and what kind of plants can be grown. Not only is intense irrigation use a problem with soil, but it is also instigating an ongoing concern of freshwater availability. About 70% of freshwater is being diverted to agriculture. Water levels diminishing all over the world. In China, ground water is nearly gone because a lot of their grain needs water. Meanwhile, the USA’s water table has gone down by half since 1960. Overall, focusing on unsustainable irrigation can have dire consequences, meanwhile focusing on healthy soil that is able to retain water more can be the ultimate solution to future, successful agriculture.
In conclusion, it has become increasingly clear that farming is not well suited for big corporations. Big corporations try to maximize profit through shortcuts, and do it with little thought to how it will affect the environment or consumers. Food should be a relationship between the farmer and the consumer. Furthermore, agroecology is what can save farming, not nanotechnology and bioengineering plants. Shortcuts have been proven to be useless in the long-term. Therefore, it is time to eliminate pesticides, artificial fertilizer, and excessive irrigation. Perhaps the next agricultural revolution we will see soon is a sustainable one.
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[i] https://e360.yale.edu/features/why-its-time-to-stop-punishing-our-soils-with-fertilizers-and-chemicals
Environmental Studies 