annual monoculture and soil

"if we select corn as a symbol of our agriculture ( it is our top carbohydrate producer) we can say without any exaggeration that corn, as a technological product, has reduced more options for future generations than the automobile."p.18

"estimates of how long it takes for one inch of topsoil to be created under natural conditions range from 300 to 1,000 years." p18

"an iowa state university research study...estimated that the united states was losing over four billion tons of soil each year through water erosion. a typical georgia cotton farm with a seven percent slope will lose over twenty tons per acre. but when cotton is grown in rotation, the farm will lose about six tons per acre, still much greater than the rate of replacement. land devoted exclusively to corn in missouri will lose nearly twenty tons per acre, but similar land , in rotation with wheat and clover has lost only 2.7 tons per acre." p.21

from "New Roots for Agricultuire" by wes jackson.

the international monetary fund has cautioned us that we should inure ourselves to rising food costs as the dietary shifts in those living in "emerging economies" create more demmand for cereal grains due to increased meat consumption...they maintain it will take "years" to bring enough new cropland into production to bring supply into line with demmand...well...they are certainly correct about the difficulty with new cropland...here in the united states what is left to open up is mostly marginal land that was taken out of production under the conservation reserve program and is subject to water erosion...there certainly isn't much of any new cropland left around here...the opposite in fact...subsumed by "development"...i am so old that i can remember when civilization along route thirty ended at the lake county reference library and didn't start again until valparaiso...that land has been paved over by subdivisions, malls, strip malls, supermarkets, car dealerships, parking lots, and some damned thing called kaboom fireworks...nothing will grow there again without a considerable effort...you could cut down the remaining rain forests of brazil...but the soil is nutrient poor ( the nutrients are all in the biomass...that's why alot of traditional horticulture in the tropics is slash-and-burn...vegiation on a plot is burned to retun nutrients to the soil which is then utilized for only a few seasons until the fertility gives out...the horticulturalists move on and the cleared area is reclaimed by native biomass and allowed to recover) and more easily eroded than soils here...lots of conservation and lots of chemical inputs don't sound like a recipie for cheaper grain to me...we probably shouldn't feed grain to cattle anyway...it kills them eventually...makes them acidotic...basically it destroys their digestive systems because they evolved to eat grass not grain...so it's a race to fatten and slaughter before they die anyway...i don't eat nearly as much meat anymore...eventuallly i will lose the habit entirely...retire it with some other doozies i've put aside already...the photos are of my trusty cornfield off county line road ( is there nothing that field can't do?)...it isn't sloped much at all, but you can see the effects of water eorsion clearly...it's pretty bare this time of year, and will remain so for a few months yet...time enough for wind and rain to erode more of it...even when it is planted it will still be mostly bare as herbicides wipe out anything that isn't genetically linked to survive it ( think bayer and "liberty-link" corn...or those "round-up ready" soy beans that are processed into something or other)...it will erode all summer too...changing agriculture to a more sustainable process is a necessity...conserving soil means more no till farming and that means perennials...it also means a greater degree of self-sufficency...so increasingly i see an imperative to grow as much of my own food as i can so i can have a modicum of control over what i put down my throat...and utilize the neglected resources of my back yard...i am educating myself...but i am not making myself comfortable.