Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>]

In his book, Peak Everything, it seems Heinberg does miss a few things,
like topsoil loss, running at about 50% of average historical depth in the
U.S. And the arable farmland left is mostly degraded to some extent by
industrial farming. Of course we can change that - at least a few of us
where we live.

paul tradingpost@lobo.net

Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes.
--Henry David Thoreau

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 12/6/2007 at 6:11 PM Ken Hargesheimer wrote:

>Future of Organic Farming   Posted by: "mukeshvarma"
>mukeshvarma@yahoo.com     Wed Dec 5, 2007 6:31 am (PST)
>Please read what an oil expert has to say on the future of organic
>farming.
>
>– MUKESH VARMA
>
>------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- -\
>------------ ------
>
>All farming will be `organic' 100 years from now -- oil expert -
>November 30, 2007
>
>An alarming vision of how the world will look after the oil runs out
>— but also of a crucial role for organic farming — has been
>given by a leading `peak oil' expert.
>
>Richard Heinberg, one of the world's leading experts on oil reserves,
>used last week's Soil Association Lady Eve Balfour Lecture to warn
>that the lives of billions of people are threatened by a food crisis
>caused by our dependence on dwindling supplies of fossil fuels.
>
>Peak oil, explained Heinberg, is simply the point at which global oil
>reserves reach their maximum output and start to decline. Some experts
>believe we have already reached peak oil, others say it is 10 or 20
>years off.
>
>Heinberg claimed that a combination of factors — higher oil prices,
>the loss of farmland to biofuel crops, climate change and the loss of
>natural resources — exacerbated by population growth, would lead to
>an unprecedented food shortage.
>
>The only way to avert a global food crisis, he said, was a planned and
>swift reduction in the use of fossil fuel use and a switch to organic or
>other zero petro-chemical input farming systems.
>
>He said: "Climate change is undoubtedly the biggest threat to
>mankind ever seen. But in the short-term, peak oil is going to hit
>economies and communities harder and faster. If we don't do anything
>to deal with our addiction to oil over the next few years, economies
>will be in chaos and tatters — and they won't be in a position
>to manage the huge challenges that confront us globally.
>
>"The transition away from oil is inevitable. And it's going to
>lead to huge changes in our food production systems. The critical thing
>is that we manage and plan the transition. This is an unavoidable,
>immediate, and immense challenge that will call for unprecedented levels
>of creativity at all levels of society.
>
>"A hundred years from now, everyone will be eating what we today
>would define as organic food, whether or not we act.
>
>"But what we do now will determine how many will be eating, what
>state of health will be enjoyed by those future generations, and whether
>they will live in a ruined cinder of a world, or one that is in the
>process of being renewed and replenished. "
>
>