Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 22, 1990 TAG: 9004230200
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: F-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL WOLF
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
From what was then a small band of enthusiastic citizens, the ranks of observers of and believers in "Earth Day" have swelled to enormous proportions throughout America. In large part, this is due to a greatly increased awareness of such matters as environmental pollution and to growing perceptions of potential health risks and threats to food safety, water supplies and ecological systems.
Added to the agenda, over these two decades, is increasing concern within the agricultural community and the food-chain industry for the nation's supply of nutritional, healthful and abundant food and fiber products.
Among farmers, there is heightened recognition - whether we be mainstream/conventional producers or organic, sustainable food growers coming into the mainstream - that the environment and our customers, the ultimate consumers, require and demand less and less dependence on toxic, man-designed chemicals and fertilizers.
There is no longer much tolerance for the use of those pest and disease applications or growth-enhancing applications. Their effect often is to neuter soil value; contaminate rivers, lakes, bays and groundwater supplies; or destroy worthwhile forms of life such as birds and wildlife, useful insects and valuable plant life.
Farmers agree that new approaches and new research are very much needed as government responds to media and public-health concerns by reducing the number of "tools" farmers may use to combat the enemies of crop and animal production.
On the 10th anniversary of "Earth Day," Fuller called it "a good sign that a new generation is utilizing biological approaches to protect and enhance our valuable soils." Yet, the wisdom of this observation is only now being realized for an area yet to be fully understood or addressed: our tremendous loss of topsoil.
A fruitful earth is composed of healthy, organic topsoil. This is the life-sustaining base upon which all food production and human existence depend.
Millions of years were required to build the topsoil which contains the most vital ingredients needed for growing things, be they plants or animals - or even human beings, such as your children and mine, for generations yet to come.
Since Old World emigrations began pushing native Americans beyond expanding frontiers to present-day reservations, our national development has devoured our topsoil to a desperately alarming degree.
Since about 1850, researchers tell us, we have lost 6 inches of topsoil over the entire continent. Because some "virgin" land exists in the largely non-arable Rocky Mountain West, and possibly in patches of hinterland and wilderness in virtually every state, such a figure suggests near-devastation where topsoil loss on farmland has been meaured. Six inches of topsoil for most of the world may be virtually all there is.
Where are we going to find enough to sutain our agriculture in the rest of the 1990s and the new century that looms just nine-plus years from now?
An organic farmer in Georgia, aided by composting and earthworms and all the known techniques for rebuilding soil, has managed in 10 years to re-establish 1 inch of topsoil on his farm. The accomplishment is so remarkable that Georgia extension personnel and scientists are trying to persuade the state government to get behind an effort to restore, statewide, the 6 inches lost since 1850.
No question, topsoil can be rejuvenated by adding compost and properly utilizing cover crops, animal manures and crop residue. Man's best ally in soil-building is the earthworm. It aerates and fertilizes land, free of charge, if encouraged by sound tillage practices and if not destroyed by chemical and fertilizer applications that may be harmful. Each acre of healthy soil is home to 500,000 earthworms.
Natural rock-minerals can correct soil imbalances and deficiencies identified by soil testing. Organic fertilizers, kelp from the sea, beneficial bacteria and green manure seeding build healthier soils. Good tillage avoids soil compaction. Top soils with high humus content provide improved structure for the better movement of water and air, so vital for soil quality maintenance.
At the rate we are going in so many scientific directions nowadays, new and even quicker soil-building technologies may be developed. But for the moment, success is demonstrated in the use of available, natural ingredients that are ecologically sound and non-toxic. The important point is that we, as a nation and as a society, get started.
We have no time to waste. Just as we committed our energies, imagination and resources in putting a man on the moon a generation ago, we need a commitment on Earth Day 1990 to putting our topsoil back on Earth.
by CNB