Peak Water, Peak Oil…Now, Peak Soil?

[xchrom]

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


Healthy soil looks dark, crumbly, and porous, and is home to worms and other organisms. It feels soft, moist, and friable, and allows plant roots to grow unimpeded. (Credit: Colette Kessler, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service)

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.

[niyad]

1. this has been warned about for many years now--we are losing arable soil at an astonishing rate.

[prairierose]

2. But soil can be brought back to life....

we had a garden area that started as clay, and trust me, clay does not help plants grow very well. My Dad just hauled in composted manure and plowed it into the soil every year for a few years. Pretty soon, we had the best garden in the neighborhood. He did the same thing with a field where we grew small grain. The soil had washed off the top of a hill and all that was left was clay. He started plowing composted manure into it. Pretty soon, it had beautiful black, rich soil. The truth is, that all soil should have compost worked into it regularly. That way, it will stay alive and productive. I also like worms a lot. They are very good for soil and plants or crops.

[stuntcat]

3. when I moved here our yard was all hard and clay

It was a mess but over the years I've mixed sooo much mulch and compost into it, now I have big flower and veggie beds, so soft & black & wormy. Our city gives us as much free mulch as we want.

I hope we're smart enough not to let farm land turn to desert. But considering all else we're doing I guess I shouldn't have much faith!

[prairierose]

4. I think it is very sad that so many...

people believe the nonsense that soil can be ruined. Well, it can be ruined by oil and toxic chemicals but the topsoil washing away is just a reason to keep adding compost and worms.

[Kolesar]

5. Clays can be great soils because of their high "cation exchange capacity"

I am reading a book on this topic. I should write an excerpt for the gardening forum. I need to reread the chapters and the time to do it, though.

[NickB79]

6. Oh, soil can definitely be ruined

True, you can bring back almost any soil from long-term damage with enough organic inputs, but those organic inputs generally don't come free. You have to invest many years of work, and many truckloads of compost and mulch, into revitalizing the soil. And in that time, which in the case of large areas of land could stretch into decades, you won't be getting much in the way of output, such as crops and vegetables, to pay for all this investment.

For millenia, farmers have simply walked away from depleted soils rather than rebuild them due to the work involved. The Middle East wasn't called the Fertile Crescent for nothing, but look at it today.

[prairierose]

7. Yes, that is quite true....

but I guess that I was very influenced by my dad who believed that farmers are stewards of the earth and it was out job to take care of the earth. That goes for any small piece of ground that is yours. In many ways, I believe that it applies to a piece of ground that isn't yours. We are all supposed to be stewards of the earth.