Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations - Kootenay Local Agricultural Society

Soil Management, 192; estimates of
topsoil loss, 149–50, 155–56, 173, 174;
genetically engineered crops and, 205;
Old World’s soils and, 69–70; soil
formation rates and, 23–24; soil loss
tolerance values, 172–73
U. S. Geological Survey, 147, 148
U. S. House of Representatives, Great
Plains Committee report, 154–55
U. S. Soil and Water Resources Conservation
Act (1977), 173
U. S. Soil Conservation Service, 141–42,
152, 153, 155, 162, 204
upland farming. See sloping land, erosion
of; topography
urban agriculture: agroecology and,
242–44; in Cuba, 231–32
urbanization: ancient Mesopotamia and,
37–38; loss of farmland and, 171–72;
rural poverty and, 108
Uruk (Erech; ancient city), 37–38
USDA. See U. S. Department of Agriculture
(USDA)
Varro, Marcus Terentius, 60, 61, 66
vegetation: erosion and, 20–21, 23, 166,
167; glacial shifts in, 29; soil characteristics
and, 59, 104. See also cover
cropping; deforestation; plants;
prairie ecosystems
Virginia Agricultural Society, 129
Virginia Company, 118, 119
Virginia tobacco farming, 117–21
Vita-Finzi, Claudio, 55–56, 62
Wallace, Mackenzie, 42
war: deforestation and, 103; export crops
and, 120; fertilizer industry and,
195–97; hunger as cause of, 110;
Mesopotamian civilization and, 38;
need for land and, 134–37, 156
Washington, George, 123–25, 142
Washington State: Palouse region, 160–63;
Quincy toxic waste issue in, 214–15
Washington State University, 208–9
water control: in ancient Egypt, 40–41;
Chinese agriculture and, 44, 181;
drainage and, 17, 94; Mayan civilization
and, 75; Roman practices and,
58, 88; Sumerian civilization and,
36–37, 39–40. See also drought;
irrigation
wetland agriculture: Mayan civilization
and, 75–76; rice cultivation and,
180–81; seventeenth-century Europe
and, 94
wheat cultivation: American agriculture
and, 125, 130, 154–55, 156, 239;
Mesopotamian agriculture and, 40.
See also global food supply; grain cultivation
White, Father Andrew, 140
Whitney, Milton, 191–92, 194–95
Whole Art of Husbandry (Mortimer), 97
Wilfarth, Hermann, 185
Wilkinson, Bruce, 236
Williams, John (missionary), 222
Wilson, Duff, 214
windbreaks, 160
wind erosion, 21, 162–63, 167. See also dust
storms
Wisconsin, erosion in, 149
Woburn Experimental Farm (England),
158
Wöhler, Friederich, 183
World Bank, 243
worm castings. See earthworms
Xenophon, 50, 55, 59, 96, 206
Yellow River, in China, 43–46, 182
“yeoman’s agricultural revolution,” 94
Young, Arthur, 99, 124, 125
Younger Dryas era, 31–32.33, 34
Yucatan Peninsula, 74–78
Zagros Mountains, 31, 35, 36
index 285