Lots of places to read more about this issue and here's a start: https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/soil-degradation.html
Erosion has been on everyone's radar for decades. We went from plow -> till -> low till -> no till. Believe me, the folks who do this talk about plowing practices and cover crops. They also discuss GMO crops and the crazy legal restrictions around seed that come with it.
> Brown earth has a deep top layer where most of the nutrients are and biological activities take place. At around 20 centimetres deep
Fun fact, where I grew up there is over 10 feet of black dirt before you hit bedrock. A lot of the Midwestern US is like that. Even with all that runway those guys _still_ discuss erosion.
Indeed. Perhaps somewhere out there is a parallel forum filled with farmers opining about computer programming, with equally inane remarks like "Have those programmers ever thought about making languages that translate into machine code instead of writing everything out as ones and zeros?"
If you are a shoemaker, be careful not to pass judgement beyond the making of shoes.
The bigger issue that farmers are ignoring is water.
That said, you’re right, they’re running a business. What they tend to do is use the smallest amount of water to produce good yields.
The only real thing a farmer can control are what they plant, when they water, when they fertilize and what they harvest (plus some maintenance, like weeding, but water isn’t impacted).
What farmers tend to do is water when necessary (between rain periods). They’ll also select different plants to grow based on price and watering schedule. That said; I’ve also seen farmers try to improve water retention (through tilling in cover crops and / or adding organic material). They’ve also built dams, etc to capture rain water and reduce erosion.
As far as I can tell, farmers do indeed try to conserve and utilize what they can. At the same time, water is being subsided by government and / or regulated. So places like California have a weird things like building farms in the desert. If the water prices were more free and people still build farms, I don’t see an issue frankly. They’re just using every drop before it gets to the sea. As the water depletes (ie too many farms) I imagine farmers will go elsewhere or change crops to become more efficient.
To be honest, I don’t see water management being too much of an issue at the moment. Plants have become increasingly drought resistant and we have the ability to breed and genetically modify them more so.
[1]https://www.propublica.org/article/killing-colorado-wasting-...
Ironically a statement without nuance. Western US farmers are ignoring water. This is not an issue in the East.
Of course, whether that's an issue depends on where you are in the world.
It's gonna be different in California vs Germany.
I actually did napkin math awhile back comparing a particular 16th century indigenous agricultural yields with 20th century American agriculture [0]. The indigenous system came out favorably until the second half of the 20th century despite the limitations of hand tools and natural fertilizer. There's still a gap between that and current yields, but I think it's fair to point out that most advocates of these systems are actually arguing for a synthesis with modern technologies that allow them to scale rather than a complete rejection of modernity.
[0] https://reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/l4do8a/aztec_cor...
Claiming that people are arguing for “synthesis” is just a weasel word escape route. Indigenous farming is completely inadequate and the parts that are useful have already been incorporated into modern farming.
What is it you think is still on the table for this “synthesis”?
Tractors don't like intercropping or terraces, complex rotations are logistically difficult and expensive without a meaningful market to back them. Distributors also don't want your optimized hyperlocal varietals nor do farmers want to manage seed production, so most people buy commercial varieties.
You don't need to explain why these things are true because I already get it. It's beside the point here.
Yes, they produced terrible yields that would starve the current population.
There is a reason farmers’ markets are for the upper middle class. Anything that isn’t done at scale can’t feed 8 billion people. If it can’t be done with combines/tractors/etc, it’s fucking useless.
But if you ignore the labour demands per mouth fed, the education needed, the amount of land to feed current western population to sustainable replacement level, the requirement to maintain advanced defence systems to prevent land being taken or otherwise destroyed, the issues with the global climate affecting whatever you do in this agrarian society, could it be done?
What I am getting at is if these “proofs” existed, they would already be proven by lower priced goods at the market.
Hugely mechanized though which makes it work when you have enough crop land. But yeah, $/hectare yield is going to be low.
Crop rotation has been standard practice my entire life. One of the many kickers though is soybeans are the fallback crop for really wet springs. Many crops need to be planted by a certain date or the growing season will be too short. Soybeans can "make up for lost time", so to speak. If your first planting gets flooded, or if it's too wet to get any crop in, you can wait until it's dry and toss in some soy to recoup some of the cost. Thing is soybeans use a lot of nitrogen.
> And you also need lots of organic matter
Manure spreaders are still a thing.
This can be combined with other (well established, commercially available) precision agriculture techniques to minimize irrigation and fertilizer waste.
The big problem is the up front cost of replacing tractor implements, and training labor.
Anyway, this is much easier than agroforestry, building glass hydroponics towers, etc.
Industrial farms are very far away from the foundations of healthy soil, and they need copious amounts of fertilizer and water to compensate.
The food produced is less nutritious and less sustainable as a result.
Consider investing in a local CSA if you have the opportunity. It’s a fantastic way to support locally sustainable agriculture.
https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Factory-Price-Wholesa...
Won't these things get broken apart after years of working the ground? Won't they potentially contaminate other areas by traveling downstream or being blown by the wind?