Peak Water, Peak Oil…Now, Peak Soil?

[G_j]

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/06/01

Published on Saturday, June 1, 2013 by Inter Press Service

Peak Water, Peak Oil…Now, Peak Soil?
by Stephen Leahy

REYKJAVÍK, Iceland - Soil is becoming endangered.This reality needs to be part of our collective awareness in order to feed nine billion people by 2050, say experts meeting here in Reykjavík.

And a big part of reversing soil decline is carbon, the same element that is overheating the planet.

"Soils are like a bank account. You should only draw out what you put in." -- Rattan Lal of Ohio State University

“Keeping and putting carbon in its rightful place” needs to be the mantra for humanity if we want to continue to eat, drink and combat global warming, concluded 200 researchers from more than 30 countries.

“There is no life without soil,” said Anne Glover, chief scientific advisor to the European Commission.

..more...

[NYC_SKP]

1. This planet will never ever feed NINE BILLION PEOPLE, not in a sustainable way.

We can't handle the 7 billion plus as it is.

I think the Georgia Guidestones had it right: 500 million, tops.

[byeya]

2. One of the richest areas for productive soil on earth are the Great Plains region of the USA. The

depth of this soil has declined by more than 50% in the relatively short time farming has been practiced there. It's more like mining than farming.

Organic farming, on the other hand, builds up the soil year by year. Our Dept of Agriculture has never been serious about enhancing our soil since WW2.(During FDRs tenure the Soil Conservation Service was active and effective particularly in the southeast where farming practices were the worst.)

[Arctic Dave]

3. Good soil has been replaced by "fertilizer".

It is nothing more then a chemical mask that tricks us into thinking we are more productive then we actually are.

[byeya]

5. If just 20% of the money the federal government spends on farmers went to organic research and

to fund studies and give assistance to organic farmers, you'd see improvement throughout a whole range of health issues - including the health of the soil - and would have the effect of bringing back small diversafied farms.

[G_j]

6. Just what is it about the term "substainable"

Last edited Sun Jun 2, 2013, 03:00 PM - Edit history (1)

that is so hard for agri-biz to grasp?

[FarCenter]

9. Ag is unsustainable so long as human feces and urine don't go back to the land

Several critical elements are taken off in the food produced and not returned if human waste is sent to the ocean.

Agriculture is an extractive industry like mining.

[niyad]

4. k and r

[mopinko]

7. all the shit that i have taken over my farm is about the untidiness

of building soil. i spent a year plus piling landscape waste, hugelkultur style, as this area is just thin sandy soil.
i am breaking city ordinances, state laws, and pissing off several neighbors. all envision me just breaking out the checkbook and buying someone else's soil, instead of building my own, just like mother nature does.

we throw away, at great cost, the materials to make good, rich soils that will stay fertile for decades.
and give grief to those that don't.

[byeya]

8. Nice comment. Hope you are able to persevere w/o legal hassles.

[mopinko]

12. the worst is over, i think.

we are pretty much done. unless some sort of creature starts climbing out of the pile, we should be ok.
few neighbors will prolly always hate me, but....

[bahrbearian]

10. Thank for the Hugelkultur Style tip

I've be wondering what to do with my cottonwoods.

[mopinko]

11. only fair.

learned about it from gato moteado. the hive mind is an amazing thing.

[G_j]

13. that is a practice that deserves subsidies

and should be strongly encouraged!

[mopinko]

14. it's a fucked up world out there, tho.

illinois just passed a new law about composting on farms. they allowed farms to get a license to accept waste, but would not allow them to collect a tipping fee. they tightly regulated it, and wont allow the fees. this is the doing of waste management inc.
you wouldn't even need tax subsidies, just let farmers, urban and otherwise, collect anything like the fees that the big guys charge.

[G_j]

15. When there really is a need to have concerted

effort to improve the local soil.
It's so counterproductive. It's hard to find anything that is not dysfunctional these days.

[mopinko]

16. really, i doubt i will ever make any money here. really not the point.

but i sure do think i will do a lot of teaching here. which is more to the point.
part of the reason i get shit is that people just don't seem to know what a farm looks like up close. if we urban farmers do nothing but teach the next generation where food comes from, we will have done good.
but even people who are into these things haven't heard of what i am doing. so, i teach all sorts of folks.

[csziggy]

17. I wonder if in the long run you end up with Terra preta

The Amazon black soil developed by the Indians whose raised beds have persisted to this day even though most of the locations have not been inhabited since the Portuguese invaded. They seem to have used charcoal rather than unburned wood - I wonder if this is something that could improve the hugelkultur process?

Terra preta is characterized by the presence of low-temperature charcoal in high concentrations; of high quantities of pottery sherds; of organic matter such as plant residues, animal feces, fish and animal bones and other material.

<SNIP>

The indigenous people added low temperature charcoal to poor soils. Up to 9% black carbon has been measured in some terra preta (against 0.5% in surrounding soils).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_preta

[mopinko]

18. interesting. i noticed

that some of the compost that i bought definitely had charcoal added to it. i could see and smell it. i suppose it does a great job of keeping it free flowing and not stinky. and figured it was harmless.

in the end, tho, you want it to break down. you want the logs to get rotten so that they hold water for you. but i suppose you could also add some permanent structure, too.
hmm.

[csziggy]

19. There is a lot of current research into terra preta

The really interesting part as far as I'm concerned is that once established the plots seem to maintain their fertility without further amendments. Discover Channel or one of the other cable channels had a show about it a few years back that told how terra preta was discovered.

This may have been it:

If both techniques tie up carbon and add fertility without a lot of other amendments and work, they are well worth exploring!