Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) has committed to donating $1 to Conservation International for every unique use of the hashtag #NatureIsSpeaking, up to $1 million.
Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) has committed to donating $1 to Conservation International for every unique use of the hashtag #NatureIsSpeaking, up to $1 million.
Still got a good 60 years worth left: http://world.time.com/2012/12/14/what-if-the-worlds-soil-runs-out/
Anfrew provides a link to an excellent article about a neglected aspect of how man blights the Earth with his presence. A new study has just been released about plants having fewer micronutrients and being less “nourishing” because of the increasing CO2 levels in the atmosphere due to AGW. The impact of “modern” agriculture on soil and food quality has been under discussion for many years, but AGW seems to be a new concern there.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/…/rising-co2-levels-threaten-human-nutrition-stu...
The most nutrient dense stuff you can get is the stuff you grow yourself.
Lots of the good stuff (nutrient-wise) is produced by plants under stress in their environment (pests, small drought, disease, etc.), so even if we didn’t have a soil problem, just the act of eliminating all the environmental stresses from plants to maximize yield in modern farming runs contrary to achieving nutrient density and perhaps diversity.
I read a lot of agricultural science stuff from ~1800 to 1830, back when only a few dozen chemical elements had been discovered and one of the more prolific discoverers of such was also the go-to man on agricultural chemistry – indeed the first agricultural chemist – Humphrey Davy. Even in his writings he expresses awareness of the destruction happening by farming (and this was before commercial fertilizer, where sustainable practices like 4-part rotations were common).
Take something like phosphate and then consider the amount of phosphate of lime that is being pulled out of the soil by grazing animals just to build their heavy skeletons (I’ve forgotten the numbers and each species has its own, but something like 40, 50, 60% of their skeletons are made of the substance). Outside of London, farmers were lucky as they had access to ground up animal bones to supply phosphate to their fields (lots of butchers and grinding mills in London), but out in the deep country, the animals are just pulling it out of the ground at 50, 100, 150lbs. per animal, and then being sent down the road to the butcher.
The calcium was replaced via marling and liming, which entailed going out to a piece of land, and stripping the topsoil off to get to the calcareous material. Marling was also recommended when converting forest to farmland as its texture helped the land retain some of its inherent nutrients. Otherwise, all it would take was about 3 separate crops of wheat or corn to pull all the nutrients out of what was, just before man showed up, a self sustaining, perpetual ecology.