Quote:With all due respect, I'm not sure you fully understand what you're reading - or you're trying to move the goalpost on me.


Soil Erosion is the process of topsoil being physically carried away by either wind or flood irrigation. That's not what you were talking about when you said the farming system is making soil unusable, current fertilizers kill soil (anathema to any farmer), and take far more water. I'm not even sure how a fertilizer can take water.


Those are completely different issues. I can explain better for you if you like because the Cornell article you're citing is about 30 years out of date and I also don't think you're understanding that out of date data correctly.


Can you explain what you mean by a fertilizer with mono-cultures, and how exactly that is destroying the soil?


It kinda seems like your reading/misinterpreting the scary parts and ignoring the solutions to them, such as your bolded paragraph.

Just don't have time to go into this more, so I will be brief. http://12.000.scripts.mit.edu/mission201...ilizers-2/ seems to address what I am talking about.

"Prolonged fertilizer application decreases the humus (nutrient organic matter) content of the soil, consequently decreasing the filtration and water retention capacity of the soil [1]. This process occurs because the excessive usage of nitrogen-based fertilizers leads to a surplus of ammonium ions. The excess of ammonium ions contributes to soil acidification [11]...If the soil has low pH, it becomes more vulnerable to erosion [1]. Water leaks more easily through eroded land, so a soil’s filtration and water retention capacity is greatly reduced. Because water cannot be kept near the roots for long enough, plants grow more slowly and can even die. Acidic soil also has a high toxicity level. This implies that acids in the soil destroy important nutrients for plant growth, decreasing the humus content. Therefore, an over-fertilized field can quickly become unusable for agriculture [11]"

 

"For example, a long-term fertility trial conducted in Arlington, Wisconsin, revealed that after 30 years of nitrogen-based fertilizers, the soil’s pH was reduced from 7 to 4.8. Also, calcium and magnesium concentrations declined by 31% and 36% respectively. Calcium and magnesium are salts essential for plant growth, therefore such decreases in concentration make the humus almost unusable [12]."

 

"Farmers often apply more fertilizers and water than necessary because of the false belief that it would be more beneficial for crop yields [13]." (study 1998)

 

I do not think I have a complete understanding on the subject, but its fairly easy to see that A. We destroyed 300 years of topsoil in 30 years. B. Excessive Fertilization destroys soil quality. C. At least in the recent past (90's) farmers were engaged widespread in these bad practices. It also seems that fertilizers is responsible for great water loss when not applied correctly (leaching etc). Whether today methods of trying to preserve soil are working seem to be uncertain: https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/PA_NRCSCon...57&ext=pdf

 

I will concede that I can't find evidence easily that it 'requires' more water (other than fertilizer having much less water retention capacity). That may have been a misunderstanding on my part. But either way, I don't have time to dig it all up (haha, pun not intended, but I like it). I have no doubt that someone with professional farming experience could explain it better than I can or has a more complete knowledge.

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