Modern Agriculture and the Environment

by Malcolm Beck

I was fortunate to be born into a farming environment with lots of aunts, uncles and cousins all living on farms that always helped each other with all of the farm work of bailing hay, pulling corn, hoeing behind the cultivator, mending fences, doctoring cattle for screw worm, slopping hogs, milking cows, cleaning out the cow lots and hundreds of other chores.

We had no TV, didn't even have electricity, which meant no running water. Still, life was never boring. There were always horses to ride, lots of rabbits and squirrels to hunt, good water holes for fishing, if the fish weren't biting it was a good excuse to go swimming. After supper in the evening the kids played all types of games that usually required lots of running or other exercise, as if we needed it There where no over-weight kids then. Back then few people had money but we got by just as well because the diverse farms and the bartering well supplied all our needs.

I grew up healthy, happy, and with good work ethics. At age 21 my wife and I purchased a farm of our own. But times were beginning to change. The bartering between relatives and neighbors, kids playing games out doors, the old folks visiting and playing dominos and the many other activities that kept families and neighbors associating was gradually disappearing. TVs, telephones, all types of modern appliances were quickly changing our lives.

Farming was changing along with all the other modern widgets and gadgets, Now instead of hauling manure from the cow pen to the fields bagged chemical fertilizers with much higher NPK was considered the modern way to go. There was also fancy dust and sprays you could use on troublesome pests. Something in us was longing for some of the old times. Since I had a job on the railroad and didn't have the worry of making ends meet like the old folks did, I decided at least we could operate our farm the old way, without all the modern chemicals. Operating our farm naturally or organically, as some called it, became a passion for my wife and me since she too grew up as I did.

After a lot of determination, trial and error our farm was a success organically. One thing we learned in a hurry was, we wished we had paid better attention to the old folks when they were trying to teach us the things they learned the hard way, but that's human nature.

After eleven years of enthusiasm and youthful energy our little farm was a showplace with gardens, fruit and nut trees. We got all types of publicity; write ups in the paper and magazines. People called us backward, old fashion and hippies even though I didn't wear ear rings or smoke pot. We even caught the attention of the agricultural extension service. An agent came for a look and admitted things were beautiful but then commented, “this natural stuff wouldn't work on large acreage, we have to feed the world”. With this challenge my wife and I decided to sell the small farm and purchase a bigger place.

We found a farm to our liking. Boy, was that farm worn out. It had been hayed to death for 82 years. In the good fields Johnson grass would only grow knee high. But we managed. After a few years of learning the different environment and soil of the new farm we discovered it was just as easy and some ways even easier to farm large acreage naturally.

After operating two farms in different locations, and not being under pressure to always make a profit I was free to try many ideas and methods. I was able to learn a lot. I mostly learned how much I didn't know about “how Nature really operates”. We associated with our neighboring farmers trying to learn as much as we could. From them we learned how much farming has changed over the years. There are very few farms contributing the sole annual income for a family.

There are 4.1 million less family farms in American today than in 1940. Every year we lose more than 17,000 farms. When we lose our farms we lose them forever. Most of the existing farms are much larger than they where in my younger years.

The really big farms have become soil-destroying monsters. Crops today are hooked like drug addicts on chemicals of the latest fertilizer and pesticide. Little attention is paid to the humus and organic content of the soil. This oversight or ignorance is causing some of the biggest problems facing mankind today.

Lets look at some problems and predictions.

Record keeping has shown atmospheric carbon dioxide has gone up from a normal 270 ppm to 380 ppm and expected to reach 600 in a few years. Scientist predicts the CO2 will have devastating effects on our climate. During this same time period soil organic content has gone from normal high of 3 to 8 percent down to a low of 0.2 to 2.5 percent, no one seems to know or care about the devastating problems this has already caused.

My question is, what happened to the carbon in the soil and where did the carbon go. Quoting a UCLA professor, “The state of California alone gains 10,000 acres of desert every year because of bad farming practices that depletes organic matter past a point where Nature can no longer re-claim the soil”.

Worldwide the desert gains are estimated at ten million acres every year. The topsoil lost to erosion by wind and water is estimated to be billions of tons annually.

Quoting the, Associated Press, “Mexico gains one half million acres of desert each year. Sixty percent of the farmland is severely degraded. Another 30 percent is in varying stages of ecological decay. The cause is over logging, bad farming, over grazing, as well as overuse of pesticides and chemical fertilizers. The government knew years ago that if the farmers continued to pump the land with chemicals to boost production, the soil would eventually collapse, but officials refused to consider more restrained practices. The policies supported multinational companies that sell improved seed, chemical fertilizers, pesticides and machinery.

As the soil goes, so goes the quality of the air, water, our food and quality of our lives.

Water crises are cropping up around the world. Senator Paul Simon wrote a book “Tapped Out” about water problems. He predicted the next wars would be fought over water instead of oil. Paul Simon offered many solutions but none he really had faith in. He never once looked to the soil and the natural cycles. Quoting, Timothy Egan from a story in New York Times entitled DRYING NATION, “Water could be next liquid gold. Bottled water is already selling for more than gasoline. The urban areas are going to get the water they need” said Thomas Graff, a water expert at the Environmental Defense. “The real battle is at the margins—between the environment and agriculture. Farms use a majority of American water. At a time when most farms are subsidized by the government many water experts say it is inevitable that water to meet future needs will have to come from agriculture.

The same amount of water to support 10 farm jobs can support 100,000 high-tech jobs, said Peter Gleick, a water expert with the nonprofit Pacific Institute in Oakland, Ca. Another big problem, according to the USDA Natural Resources Inventory, we lose 1.2 million acres of agricultural lands to urban sprawl and development every year. That's more acreage the earth no longer has to sequester carbon and trap fresh water.

My question. Who is going to feed the urbanites with their swimming pools, green lawns and landscapes? And who is going to feed the high-tech nerds with their lush golf courses if the farmland is depleted and thirsting for water? I don't think either understands where their wealth comes from. Few people realize that agriculture is the only virgin and renewable wealth this Nation has.

From the above quotes and statements you can see the serious problems facing humankind. The still bigger problem is the greed, selfishness and apathy in the thinking. There doesn't seem to be any urgency in searching for the cause and the cure of these global and potential catastrophic problems. Mankind needs to wake up. The answers are in sound agricultural practices and with dedicated farmers that have an understanding of the natural cycles, especially the carbon cycle. Lets take a look at the carbon cycle and see how it affects the soil, plants and the water cycle.