How to get men to care about the environment

And why is the retired land no longer productive? Could it not be the fact that it has become a degraded resource? It is the old story of man taking from the earth and not putting anything back. Think about it. 200 bushels of corn per acre being taken out and salt being put back in. Because fertilizers are salts.

 

When something varies it changes. Variability means change. And anyone can write a book with any POV.

 

It is what is happening

 

Global Warming would make vertical grow sheds/structures even more scale-able.

 

Look up the meaning of standard deviation. Variability does not mean change in the average. In the case of global warming the average is increasing at the rate of ~ 0.1 deg per decade but the variability of climate dwarfs the slow change of the mean. This is all explained in the book which you decline to investigate.

 

How many acres per year in the US are retired due to this type of degradation ??

 

It isn't degradation. The government for many years paid people not to grow anything, so doctors and lawyers and such would go buy up big farms and let them sit fallow in exchange for a regular check from Uncle Sam to do nothing. Seems like a couple network news anchors had been doing this too IIRC.

 

Okay, blame it on the government. Scientific American predicts 460,000 acres of degraded farmland in the us by 2040. World wide land degradation has taken land the size of the country of Belgium. You seem to think only in terms of the U.S. The world is bigger than that. Despite the "nothing ain't gonna happen and everything is gonna be hunky dory" attitude of people things are changing. It is a fact that everything we do has a consequence. You can accept or reject it.

 

I am not saying it can't be done. It just doesn't seem practical to me. Some systems have a practical value on a small scale such a Mittleider gardening but I just don't think enough food can be produced at a competitive price. I may be stupid and lack knowledge but I have tried different systems. I am always experimenting. I tend to look at things like roller crimpers and carbon farming as much better alternatives.

 

We were discussing the past as it leads to the present, not 2040. 459,900 of those acres will be degraded with tract housing for all the Muslims Hillary is letting in. I don't care about the rest of the world. Let them eat ADM cornbread.

 

More model predictions ?? What about the actual data ?? This is the same tactic that the global warming alarmists use. They use the upper limit of model predictions and then apply the precautionary principle to claim that civilization as we now know it is doomed.

BTW, there are ~ 900 million acres of farmland being used in the US. 460K acres is ~ 0.05% of that.

 

"Competitive price" is probably why you do not see the utility. There was a time when people did not get all their food from a grocery store shelf or restaurant table. Estimates are that up to half our food production is wasted. The more expensive food becomes, the more it monetizes turning the blemished crops into food; the more it encourages people to move out of high density situations, and the more opportunity it will be for people to grow some of their own food. If America could readily grow its own gas, our cities would be covered in switchgrass. Eventually they will be covered in gardens again.

 

Just insist we need to practice being better, Husbandmen on Earth.

 

Well that too. And this may be on the increase due to the extremely low interest rates which have been forced on us by the Fed and it's dual mandate for the last 10 years.

 

It is not about housing it is about farmland that can no longer be farmed because the soil is worn out. Scientific American says we have about 60 years of farming left at the present rate of degradation. The rest of the work affects us. We are already being invaded by the rest of the world. We don't live in a bubble as much as people think we do.

 

Okay, how about this. People consume one ton of food per year. 3.4 tons of topsoil are lost per person per year. You figure it out.

 

Don't need dirt to grow food

 

Dirt is dead. Soil is alive. Food can be grown in water, coir, sand, and even air. I think fish farming is a good thing and I have farmed fish myself. But you tell me how to get 200 bushels of corn in an area of an acre using any method not using soil. Or you can just take shots at my posts. Tell me how this is done. You can also tell me how to raise meat this way.

 

That is because of tilling and moncropping not "Climate change" It can be rectified in a few years with better management. Hell, my uncle's farm is an old strip coal mine. You can't get much more degraded than that and it grows some might pretty cucumbers now.

 

"Dirt is dead. Soil is alive." is perhaps the dumbest thing I have read on this issue. We don't need X bushels per acre just because we currently produce X bushels per acre. China needs to feed itself. Any nation that doesn't have food security isn't a nation. I have no interest in perpetuating a system in which ADM produces enough food to make it impossible for local farmers in far away places to compete with them. I want to see agribusiness die a rapid and painful death, not keep it on life-support. People don't even need corn to survive.

 

That is what I have been trying to say. And regenerative farming practices will put carbon back in the soil where it belongs. This will increase productivity, water penetration, lesson the use of pesticides and commercial fertilizers, and pollution in streams and rivers. It is a win win even if you disagree with climate science.

 

New roller crimpers can also reduce herbicide use. It can eliminate herbicides in soybean production. I would like to post a link but I have problems with this phone.

 

Ok, but it is not a win-win for me as I need to go out and till some that I have been putting off all week. No worries though, if the wall doesn't catch the top soil when it rains the waddle at the bottom of the hill will.

 

Are you doing a terrace?

 

If you want to make a point using those figures then make it. But also list the source of those numbers. Where does the topsoil go ?? Are you claiming that the 460,000 acres by 2040 is incorrect ??