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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Rodale Institute: The needs and limits of the land
  • Date: Thu, 19 Jun 2008 17:45:46 -0600


Dear Paul: Farmers in the upper Midwest are reeling from the wide-ranging
impacts of way too much precipitation—up to 15 inches of rain in some
cases—that has buried farms, farmland, towns and even parts of cities under
millions of tons of some very nasty water. The damage is still unfolding, and
no one is estimating the economic, infrastructure, social and biological
losses the region will have sustained once things dry out. Extensive areas of
“yellow corn” suffering in saturated soil may reduce the state’s yield
potential to 60 to 65 percent of normal.

Had all of the state still been in its native prairie and riparian woodlands,
its rivers still would have probably carved new channels and crested their
banks. I agree with the Iowans who are asking, however, how much the severity
of the event stems from having large areas of the state in monocultures of
corn and soybeans and other changes which have increased runoff. Read How
much of flood impact man-made, Iowa ag leaders ask.

photo courtesy of Farm Aid

Much of this land is in soil that lacks the increased pore space, deeper
aerobic zone and high organic matter that characterizes organically managed
soils. It therefore doesn’t have the ability to absorb water that the organic
soils (or soils used for pasture or hay) have. That’s the reality on more
than half of Iowa that is in corn or soybeans (about 20 million of its 36
million land acres), buffered only by no-till acreage that also has good
percolation. The state has only 75,000 total organic acres (64,000 in crops,
11,000 in pasture).

The Iowans and their downriver neighbors facing floodwaters also suffered
from the lost and floating agricultural inputs of synthetic fertilizer and
pesticides from the non-organic acres, as well as lagoon manure from the
concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs).

This unusual and disastrous natural purging of these products is accentuated
by the enhanced runoff from conventionally farmed soils. Looking forward,
after survival and recovery of as many farms as possible, how can the
agriculture of the upper Midwest shift significant chunks of its land to
farming that much better regards the needs and limits of the land?

Like the flooding, the most recent food scare is worth analyzing for what we
can do differently. Hints: Figure out how to quickly move away from an
industrialized, centralized and comingled fresh tomato sector. Grow into a
system that decreases risk and increases farmer participation by
regionalizing the whole business, then learn to celebrate seasonal supply.
Melinda Hemmelgarn, M.S., R.D. explains the situation in A tale of two
tomatoes.

To help out flooded-wounded farmers, click here. To push the country to a
healthier way to producing tomatoes, wait… until they are ready at a farm or
market near you.

Greg Bowman and the
Rodale Institute editorial team
http://www.rodaleinstitute.org/Newsletter





  • [Livingontheland] Rodale Institute: The needs and limits of the land, Tradingpost, 06/19/2008

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