Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations - Kootenay Local Agricultural Society

ottom line is that we have to adapt to the capacity of the soil rather than
vice versa. We have to work with the soil as an ecological rather than an
industrial system—to view the soil not as a factory but as a living system.
The future of humanity depends as much on this philosophical realignment
as on technical advances in agrotechnology and genetic engineering.
Capital-intensive agricultural methods will never provide the third of
humanity that lives on less than two dollars a day a way out of hunger and
poverty. Labor-intensive agriculture, however, could—if those people had
access to fertile land. Fortunately, such methods are also those that could
help rebuild the planet’s soil. We should be subsidizing small subsistence
farmers in the developing world; teaching people how to use their land
more productively invests in humanity’s future. Too often, however, modern
agricultural subsidies favor large industrial farms and reward farmers
for practices that undermine humanity’s long-term prospects.
The more than three hundred billion dollars in global agricultural subsidies
amounts to more than six times the world’s annual development
assistance budget. Oddly, we are paying industrial farmers to practice
unsustainable agriculture that undercuts the ability of the poor to feed
themselves—the only possible solution to global hunger. Political systems
perpetually focused on the crisis du jour rarely address chronic problems
like soil erosion; yet, if our society is to survive for the long haul, our political
institutions need to focus on land stewardship as a mainstream—and
critical—issue.
Over the course of history, economics and absentee ownership have
encouraged soil degradation—on ancient Rome’s estates, nineteenth-century
southern plantations, and twentieth-century industrialized farms. In
all three cases, politics and economics shaped land-use patterns that
favored mining soil fertility and the soil itself. The overexploitation of both
renewable and nonrenewable resources is at once well known and almost
impossible to address in a system that rewards individuals for maximizing
the instantaneous rate of return, even if it depletes resources critical for the
long term. The worldwide decimation of forests and fisheries provide obvious
examples, but the ongoing loss of the soil that supplies more than 95
percent of our food is far more crucial. Other, nonmarket mechanisms—
whether cultural, religious, or legal—must rise to the challenge of maintaining
an industrial society with postindustrial agriculture. Counterintuitively,
for the world beyond the loess belts this challenge requires more
people on the land, practicing intensive organic agriculture on smaller
farms, using technology but not high capitalization.
life span of civilizations 245