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Soil Conservation and Construction

There is an old saying that has come out of the farming community, “he was plowed under”.  This has a negative connotation and this negativity, it could be said, carries through to soil that has been plowed.  Agriculture has had a rather consistent methodology, using a plow, since its beginning some eight or ten thousand years ago.  It is interesting to conjecture that the method likely used in the very early beginning, sticking a hole in the ground, is now turning out to be the preferred method, although with a few contemporary innovations.  Until our recent period, the time from those thousands of years back until now has been spent in finding the best way to turn or till the soil, plowing by some method.  It stands to reason that early man, having no alternative, planted by poking a hole in the ground.  Today we have rather sophisticated machinery that can poke a hole in the ground at a very rapid rate. It is interesting to note that George Washington used a drill planting method.  That aside, the prime advancement in agriculture was what became known as the “mold board plough” which is essentially the plow most of us recognize, the one with the metal point and curved back blade that digs down into the dirt and turns it up and out onto a mound leaving a furrow for planting and bringing up the better soil from further down while covering and mixing the deposits of plant scrap into the soil. 

This type of plow powered first by humans, then by animals and later by machines, was quite an advancement and did improve gross crop production.  Where it failed in its ultimate objective, to feed humans, is that there was no consideration as to soil structure, how really fragile soil is in regards to plant production and how long it takes to create new soil when the old is taken away, or depleted, by the act of man.  So perhaps, not for the first time, certainly not the last, we have an instrument of innovation that benefits mankind while at the same time undermines future viability by virtue of its very function.  One of the great benefits of formal science today is that it has done a great deal of research in regards to soil. This understanding does not rapidly translate to the act of farming in general.  The classic farmer tends to continue in habitual ways and prefers not to entertain new concepts.  The farms that have become part of the mega agriculture empires use the new science for immediate gains with little regard to future implications.  In respect to some aspects of corporate farming, they really do pay a lot of attention to soil protection and erosion.  There is no doubt but what they make the best of soil science.  In regards to the soil, they are committed to chemicals referred to below. 

Other than air and water there is nothing more basic and essential to the life of the human being than soil.  It could likely be proven that if the top two inches of our land mass were to disappear, mankind would soon disappear.  Our earth is pocked marked by evidence of masses of humans raping the soil and then moving on.  If you have a tough time considering the effect of masses seeking more food, take this quote: “A [farmer] took up land [in Saskatchewan], dug a cellar and built a frame house on top of it; ploughed up the prairie and grew wheat and oats. After 20 years he decided the country was no good for farming, for eight feet of his soil had gone and he had to climb up into his house.” —Richard St, Barbe Baker, My Life, My Trees [Quoted by John Jeavons in How to Grow More Vegetables]

That quote may seem a bit extreme but the point is set.  There has to be more consideration given by all those who deal with soil, to the future value of this most essential commodity.  The government can print money, but so far, cannot print soil. We need to become more educated in regards to what is going on with the dirt, soil, under our feet and what it really means to our future as homo sapiens. The idea of the degradation and destruction of our soil has only been touched on.  This modest awareness needs to come before the idea of how could we better attend to the soil and in some way, as a group, support and repair this major element of our existence.

Farmers everywhere are becoming quite aware of the problems inherent with the classic mold board plough and attached mode of farming. The alternative, No Till Farming, still has problems and drawbacks.  It is not a simple, if this-then that, choice. No Till is basically trying not to disturb the topsoil and still get plant production.  This is not real simple in the best of circumstances:  which means that there has to be an effort applied to implement the idea of the need for a different approach to farming. 

Poor and habitual farming practices aside, the major threat to our soil, other than that of simple erosion from various causes, is that of chemical poisoning of the earth. The moldboard plowing of the earth, tearing up the symbiotic relationship between the living elements in the earth and the needed plant production is still a large concern in the need to support our mass of humanity.  What has happened in very recent times, less than 60 years  ago, that has changed agriculture, provided food for the masses that would have starved, and is now causing one of the greatest pollution problems of modern times is the introduction of petro chemical based fertilizer. The resulting pollution was not only from injecting poison into our food chain, but it has to do with how life in our soil is being killed.  This means dead soil.  This means soon, dead humans.

Wade Swicord

www.agrowgreen.com