We Need to Practice Earth-Friendly Soil Conservation Techniques

"Wes Jackson is a plant geneticist and president of The Land Institute in Salina, Kan. Wendell Berry is a farmer and writer in Port Royal, Ky." and they write a commentary reviews recent damaging conditions of soil erosion created by weather conditions "and by various degradations resulting from industrial procedures and technologies alien to both agriculture and nature" in the Mid-West. The writers are concerned with "the problem of soil loss," in which "the industrialization of agriculture has added pollution by toxic chemicals, now universally present in our farmlands and streams. Jackson and Berry believe that: "Some of this toxicity is associated with the widely acclaimed method of minimum tillage. We should not poison our soils to save them." Petroleum based products have dominated agricultural production for over a half century and will lead us to an unsustainable future of food production, "by substituting technological “solutions” for human work and care, has virtually destroyed the cultures of husbandry (imperfect as they may have been) once indigenous to family farms and farming neighborhoods." The writers argue: "We must restore ecological health to our agricultural landscapes, as well as economic and cultural stability to our rural communities." A step in the right direction in which: "Any restorations will require, above all else, a substantial increase in the acreages of perennial plants. The most immediately practicable way of doing this is to go back to crop rotations that include hay, pasture and grazing animals." But Jackson and Berry predict the need for "a more radical response is necessary if we are to keep eating and preserve our land at the same time. In fact, research in Canada, Australia, China and the United States over the last 30 years suggests that perennialization of the major grain crops like wheat, rice, sorghum and sunflowers can be developed in the foreseeable future. By increasing the use of mixtures of grain-bearing perennials, we can better protect the soil and substantially reduce greenhouse gases, fossil-fuel use and toxic pollution." Such a response would mean that: "Carbon sequestration would increase, and the husbandry of water and soil nutrients would become much more efficient. And with an increase in the use of perennial plants and grazing animals would come more employment opportunities in agriculture — provided, of course, that farmers would be paid justly for their work and their goods." In essence, Jackson and Berry are calling for political decisions that will emphasize the "need a national agricultural policy that is based upon ecological principles. We need a 50-year farm bill that addresses forthrightly the problems of soil loss and degradation, toxic pollution, fossil-fuel dependency and the destruction of rural communities."