Air Pollution, Water Shortage & Soil Erosion—

A Different Farm Subsidy Approach  

by Malcolm Beck

   

Before our modern agriculture—with over soil tillage, non-organic, high analysis fertilizers and improper animal grazing—became widely used on our farm and ranch lands, the soil in this country had an organic content between four and eight percent. Now the soil across the US contains one half or less of the organic matter it once had.

Although modern agricultural practices are designed to improve farming, the results show different. The big mold board and disc plows turned the top soil over and exposed the millions of soil life species to the sun's rays which kill them. They then decay and the carbon they contained is oxidized into the air as CO2.

Using high analysis fertilizers doesn't help either. Plants can't absorb chemical fertilizer until microbes have processed it into an ion form. The energy microbes require to do the processing is taken from the decaying, carbon rich, plant and animal matter in the soil. As the soil life processes the fertilizers, the energy used is released to the atmosphere as CO2. The higher the analysis, and/or more fertilizer used, the more CO2 is released. As a result, the soil organic content is lost from the soil to the atmosphere as pollution. Is there an answer?

Nature grows plants without plowing or using high analysis fertilizer, so why can't we? Organic fertilizers contain the energy the microbes need for the processing so none is stolen from the soil. A study published a few years ago by William Holmberg, a consultant to the U.S. President, discovered that “ all we need to do to offset the carbon dioxide we are putting into the atmosphere each year from burning fossil fuels is to build the organic content of our farm lands just one tenth of one percent each year.”

At that time no one knew how to do that. Time and testing have shown that “conservation tillage” does exactly that. In cooler and wetter areas, not all of the farm land can be operated on a no-till basis; however, grazing animals or ranching in a way that conserves the soil can be done in most any weather condition.

A Simple Solution

Holistic Management® planned grazing can help solve the air pollution and water shortage problems and much more. Holistic planned grazing builds the soil organic content the same as conservation tillage. In this country, there are 455 million acres of farm land with about 60,000 acres in no-till. There are 578 million acres of rangeland in the US. I heard an estimate that over a million acres of that rangeland is already being grazed by people integrating Holistic Management into their grazing practices.

Unlike farming or common animal grazing methods, Holistic Management grazing requires no or very little fertilizers, pesticides and fossil fuel consuming large equipment. Holistic Management grazing keeps a protective cover of plants on the soil at all times, which traps rains, stops soil erosion, promotes greater water absorption, lessens flood damage, and creates a good habitat to protect and increase native plant and wildlife species. In addition to all of these benefits, Holistic Management ranchers have a higher stocking rate and make more profit each year than neighboring ranches.     

All of this could easily be accomplished if farmers and ranchers were helped to learn and understand these methods. If farmers and ranchers were paid to build the organic content of their soil, Nature and all mankind would gain abundantly from this type of farm subsidy.

The people living in the urban areas could also help to control air pollution and water shortages. Applying one half-inch (12.5 mm) of compost to the lawn in the fall, has proven to cut water needs from 20 to 70 percent. A two-inch (55 mm) layer of organic mulch over the root zone of shrubs and trees and one-inch (25 mm) for flowers show the same water-saving results.

Carbon & Water Cycles

Understanding and using the carbon and water cycles is the solution to air pollution, water shortages and soil erosion.

On the surface of green plant leaves, there are numerous little valves called stomatas. These little valves open to take in air. They then shut, and the leaf attacks the carbon dioxide that came with the air and separates the carbon from the oxygen. With chlorophyll and energy from the sun, carbon is combined with hydrogen to make carbohydrates or energy. The oxygen is then released to the air for our use. This is how Nature keeps the air clean and creates the energy we use and the food we eat.

Whenever there is a cover of mulch on the soil such as leaves, grass, manure, litter, compost, dead insects or any life form, there is decay going on at the soil level. The decay rate is greatest when the temperature and moisture is best for plant growth. This decay is creating and releasing carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is slightly heavier than air. It tends to stay trapped in the canopy of growing plants and grass. These plants now have an abundance of carbon dioxide to process into energy.

NASA research has discovered that when there are high concentrations of CO2 around the surface of leaves they stay two degrees warmer because there is less moisture being lost from the leaf through the stomata. The escaping moisture has a cooling effect. There is less moisture being lost because with a lot of CO2 in the air, the stomata can stay shut longer and open less because it quickly gets an abundance of CO2 resulting in longer processing which keeps the stomata closed longer. NASA concluded this too could contribute to global warming. However, they missed an important point. Ninety nine percent of the water a plant takes from the soil is transpired through the open stomata. The longer the stomata stays shut, the less transpiration or moisture is lost from the plant.    

In a conservation-tillage operation with annual crops, the soil is disturbed very little. The earthworms and the many other forms of macro life are not disturbed or destroyed. The micro life along with the miles of fine root hairs are not disturbed or exposed to damaging sun rays, which can quickly destroy them, and they will eventually be oxidized into the atmosphere. Soil science has shown that there is more tonnage and numbers of live species underground than living above in any given area.

With conservation tillage, the entire above-grown portion of dead plants is kept on the surface as mulch. This traps every drop of rain, keeping it from evaporating away or running off to cause flooding and erosion. Under the mulch, at the soil level, there is a more constant moisture and temperature where the macro- and micro-forms of soil life are feeding, pasteurizing, tunneling, and digesting the raw material back to the soil as fertilizer and soil conditioner.    

With Holistic Management grazing, the preferred species of grasses and forbs are never overgrazed. There is always a healthy stand of many species of growing plants with ample leaf surface to capture the CO2 being released from the urine, manure, and dead plant litter that has fallen down to the soil surface. Here the carbon cycle is working at its best. In poor grazing conditions, where the grass and other forage plant are eaten too short, with no green left, the plant is weakened, and then the plant has to steal carbohydrates from the roots to re-grow. This weakens the roots, eventually the plant will die, and this starves the symbiotic associated micro and higher soil life. Eventually there is soil compaction, poor in-soak, water runoff, soil erosion and CO2 escaping to the atmosphere.

How people manage their land, consciously or unconsciously, all has an affect on the health and economy of the area, the nation, and the world. Our farm subsidies should support the kind of outcome we want and Holistic Management is a simple solution to address issues such as air pollution, water shortage, and soil erosion.

 

Malcolm Beck is a member of HRM of Texas and the compost guru of Texas. He can be reached at: beckmalcolm@msn.com.