RCS Posts agriculture: Its about the plow. Give it up? Just what is plowing? Its done wonders for millennia.
The plow has been a symbol of agriculture. It has been the most important tool of of agriculture. It has seemed that farming and plowing go together like horse an carriage. Plowing has seemed a good idea.
However, many are now certain that is not a good an idea as often as we have thought.
The cutting into the soil and the subsequent turning of soil in plowing often liberates large amounts of carbon dioxide into our atmosphere. That has lead to a profound change in our ecology. We now speak of our world's co2 burden.
The soil is a naturally highly a highly structured environment. It is now believed that it holds or has held a majority of the Earth's biodiversity. That diversity and that structure has supported all plant life and all dependent on that life for eons. Now most forest has been open to the plow and even more of the Earth's prairie has be disrupted by the plow. And worse, plowed earth is still too often is left without cover.
Plowing changes the chemical composition of soil and air! We have successfully sought to re-order and re-formulate the structure of soil. Good for us, but when is that a good practice and when is it not. It looks like we need to re-formulate our ideas of good agricultural practices. We have learned a great deal about good usage of soil, but have given industrial farmers little motive to adopt them.
There are are economically useful ways to have more fruitful soil. Some of those ways may include preserving cover and plowing less.
We have long spoken of letting certain land rest or lie fallow and we have often acted on our words. We are now beginning to understand that we can profit by letting certain lands be natural. We now also know that it is possible to reclaim much desert land for planting, grazing, or as an aid for our atmosphere without taking water from anyone.
We still have a very great deal to learn and understand about biodiversity. Many of us now have begun to see that it not only supports the quality of our lives, but also our very lives.
We need and want good food and I believe we deserve it, as do our children and youth, their children and grand children. We have actions to take to get that which we deserve and need.
We have a lot to learn, much to think about and more to do. There are great doings which are doable right now.
Some are already thinking about the quality of our soil, our methods, and our survival. They need a hand. They need understanding help from many of us. Its good that there are so many of us, because with many, no one person need be overburdened.
There are places on Earth where lands have bee let be. From those places a few of us have learned much and they are willing to share as are many others. However, few such lands are protected and all seem to be endangered. You can learn why they are worth protecting and moral ways of protecting them.
Geneticists are please with the natural diversity of certain forests and wish for more nearly natural Prairie.
I believe that I have already written here that letting land be is far from enough. Some desert land needs to be changed and maintained so that it retains more of the little rain it receives, so that it can maintain controlled grazing or support certain crops. There much to be done and now is the time to begin, but not halter skelter.
Some farmers in France and China and all around the world, to their benefit and ours, let some of their land rest and regenerate while still being productive. In France, a field may be helped to become a pond for fish, ducks, and frogs. In a very few years it may again become a fresh fertile field. We may make it more profitable for farmers to make their land more productive. Changes can be costly You may find people who will help you to help you to help farmers in the best way possible at this time.
We Can find easy ways to support those among us willing to find profitable methods managing land which improve the land and the quality of of food produced on it.
Some have already found profitable and sustainable alternatives to plowing.
There is not to much to learn, but there is plenty to learn and than learning needs to be sustained. You can begin to find out today why so many believe that it is important and possible to help limit the quantity of co2 in our air; so important that people are being paid to do so. The value of biodiversity can be learned by you. Many already know a lot about it. Some have told me that there was a time when better tasting oranges, apples, and tomatoes viable. Others tell me of a plague killing cherry trees and of one variety resisting that plague. It looks beautiful and tastes great, but there is a lot more to learn from those stories.
we all need to learn a bit, but there are some individuals who want to learn a lot about managing crops for change, quality, and and benefit for all. We can help them a bit.
This is not my field, but I believe that it is an important one. You can comment in the "comments" section below and I can try to respond.
RCS