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Top:Science:Agriculture:Sustainable Agriculture
Many agri-businesses operate the same way that the robber barons of the last century built their industrial empires. We all bury our heads in the sand and pretend that we will always be able to take more out of the land than we put in. The super yields of the modern farm are just like the budget deficit -- the modern farm is robbing tomorrow's food supply just as surely as we are robbing our children of their economic futures. The super yields are illusions of plenty. They are based on non-renewable resources (synthetic fertilizers) that we are getting dangerously close to using up. They are based on irrigation practices that are draining underground aquifers that have taken thousands of years to fill. They are based on plowing and planting techniques that result in extensive loss of the topsoil that has taken centuries to create. They are based on an attitude towards pests that results in the destruction of species that have taken millennia to evolve. All of this is happening every day. Things that took centuries of natural work are being used up/undone/destroyed in two or three generations. We ignored the agricultural ruin of the Middle East and northern Africa due to centuries of poor stewardship (it'll never happen here! we say). We did not learn the full lesson of the Dust Bowl (they were fools! we say). We disregarded the warnings of the Oil Crisis (we'll never run out! we say). We ridiculed Rachel Carson (who cares if a few insects become extinct? They're just bugs… we say). The destruction of the planet by the people most entrusted with its stewardship (i.e. farmers) must stop. We can't stop farming, so we must re-learn how to farm responsibly. Sustainable agriculture = responsible farming. Created 2/06/96. |
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© 1995-2004 by Michael Heggen. All rights reserved, except as noted. |
