How Many Harvests Have We Left?
by MARTIN JEZER from EVO
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Despite highest crop yields per acre in history, American
agriculture is in a state of acute crisis. Farmers have
been treating the soil the way speed freaks treat their
bodies - with similar results.
The Meth that is used down on the farm is artificial
fertilizer, an "upper" that stimulates rapid plant growth
without contributing anything to soil health. In the short
run, as with speed freaks, crops grow at a frantic pace.
But in the long run, the use of these artificial and
inorganic chemical fertilizers destroys the soil and
saturates the ground with chemicals that do not break down
or decompose into the earth.
Nitrogen in the soil is vital to plant growth, but when
huge doses of this element are shot into the earth as an
ingredient in artificial fertilizer, the results are often
disastrous. The crops absorb some of the nitrogen, but much
of it seeps through the soil into the ground water to
pollute rivers, lakes and drinking water.
According to Dr. Barry Commoner, director of the Center for
the Study of Biology Systems at Washington University in
St. Louis, excess nitrogen in drinking water can cause a
serious infant disease, methemoglobinemia. A number of
public wells in California have been closed by health
officials due to high nitrate content in the water. Says
Dr. Commoner: "The agricultural wealth of California's
Central Valley has been gained at a cost that does not
appear on the farmer's balance sheets - the general
pollution of the state's huge underground water reserves
with nitrate."
Nitrate run-off in the ground water also encourages the
growth of algae, which removes oxygen from water. These
"algae-blooms" turn lakes and rivers into cesspools which,
lacking oxygen, are unable to sustain aquatic life. This is
happening in such cornbelt states as Illinois where,
according to Dr. Commoner, "Every major river is
overburdened with fertilizer drainage."
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