Book Post 6: No More Dirt to Play In

Since most of you are in APUSH (not me), I'm sure you all know to some degree about the great Dust Bowl in the early 1930's and how this pushed many workers to the west (Of Mice and Men!) But did you know the reason for the sudden surge of dirt and dust blowing through the wind?  People have been planting in the Great Plains the same crops season after season and knew nothing about replenishing the soil's nutrients and moisture.  Because the plains states are typically dry for most of the year, drought was always a worry in the farmers minds, but they never had to deal with an outrageous lack of water.  All of a sudden, the delicate balance in the farms tipped and a drought struck.  Not only was that bad enough, but the luscious and rich topsoil came loose and blew throughout the land.  This precious topsoil was what gave the farmers such bountiful crops year after year, but it all turned to dust.  This caused great economic pain and now the land functions at a fraction of what it used to. 

You'd think that we would have learned our lesson and paid more attention to the quality of the soil, but that is not the case.  We've begun to destroy our remaining soil especially through the use of chemical fertilizers.  Synthetic fertilizer consists largely of ammonia.  To produce the massive amounts of ammonia needed to feed the crops, 33,00 cubic feet of natural gas is used to produce one ton of the ammonia.  This continued cycle causes ultimate dependence on fossil fuels, but, guess what, they will run out (yes, the rumors are true).  More than half the nitrogen and ammonia fertilizer isn't used by the crop, but is lost through nitrate conversion into gas and its leakage back into the soil and water supply, but now it is a harmful, not helpful, chemical.

Not only does the demand for such high quantities of natural gas significantly increase the carbon footprint of our food system and crops, but the Earth is losing topsoil 10 times faster than we are making it.  This upside down figure will fail to sustain us forever and it needs to improve.  Because we are losing this topsoil, it is also releasing carbon dioxide into the air, adding more unwanted greenhouse gas to the atmosphere. 

We can slow down this dependence on chemicals and loss of soil if we use natural/organic fertilizers and support crop diversity (plant corn one year, then beans the next so the exhausted minerals can naturally replenish).

GO GREEN!