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Comment by thomas_howland | Hacker News Reader

We are absolutely not. Productive farmland in the USA is fairly expensive and farmers are extremely interested in preserving its value. Most "destroyed" topsoil is due to eg suburban developments spreading into former agricultural areas, but it's still minimal in the grand scheme of things.

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Development of arable land is a problem, but our agricultural practices are a major one. I think shanev is speaking about the effects of modern agriculture on top soil. We should prioritise the _creation_ of soil. Instead, top soil is being degraded and then lost though erosion. There are other issues, such as the planting of monocultures, overuse of nitrogen fertilizers and so on.

As climate change brings us longer droughts and larger downpours, we should be farming in ways that build top soil for more resilient farmland.

(edit - adding link to http://www.fao.org/docrep/t0389e/t0389e02.htm)

Yes this is exactly what I was getting at. Thanks for putting it more eloquently than I did. I’m just used to getting downvoted anytime I talk about monoculture farming, soil, and climate change so I don’t put effort into it anymore.

I think the pro-GMO crowd thinks talking about sustainable farming is anti-science when it actually involves more science at a macro level to understand the effects of synthetic monoculture farming on soil, and it’s effects on climate change.

There's science and technology all the way along the sustainability spectrum... but it isn't evenly distributed.

I'm new to growing and enjoying the steep but rewarding learning curve. Soil is an amazing thing and I think humans are only just getting a better idea of what's going on down there. This recent conference talk helps shed some light: "Building Soil Health for Healthy Plants by soil scientist Dr. Elaine Ingham" https://youtu.be/xzthQyMaQaQ

>Soil is an amazing thing and I think humans are only just getting a better idea of what's going on down there.

So true. A protein which makes up ~10% of soil by weight was only discovered in the 90s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glomalin

And only last year we discovered soil has a micro-biome too [1], and it has a profound impact on plant growth.

The most fascinating aspect of soil to me is that it's a natural carbon store, which for obvious reasons will become increasingly important in the coming years.

[1]: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/soil-has-microb...

"One-third of world’s soils are degraded: FAO"

http://www.livemint.com/Politics/NVc4UYKzFxn8zeQqkydyPM/Onet...

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