Soil Depletion and How You Can Help Avert the Looming Food Crisis

by Dave Steele (Originally published in the May/June 2004 issue of Canada EarthSaver)

Our lives are deeply rooted in the soil. That's no mere analogy. It's true. Our food comes from the soil. Our clothing comes from the soil. We even live on the soil. Since the advent of agriculture we've been exploiting the land to feed ourselves. And often we've been less than careful about it.

Historically, we humans have exploited our land to the point of exhaustion then moved on. The Anasazi of the American southwest would farm an area for a few decades then farm new land as the old lost its capacity to feed them. Many tropical societies do the same today. Problem is, eventually you run out of new land to move onto. The Anasazi ran out. So did the Easter Islanders. Their societies collapsed. Even the birthplace of modern agriculture has been far from unscathed.

Roughly 10,000 years ago Western agriculture was born in the 'fertile crescent,' an area centered around what is now known as Iraq. Most of the crops we eat today have their origins in that area. Grains, beans, peas, carrots — they're all derived from plants indigenous to the fertile crescent. Iraq was the richest, most innovative society on earth. Today, though, the fertile crescent is anything but fertile. Deforestation led to soil erosion; salts poisoned the soil as irrigation waters evaporated away. Now, much of Iraq is desert.

And it's not alone. Haiti, Somalia, Rwanda, Iraq, Afganistan, Pakistan, Indonesia, the Phillipines — the list goes on and on — are all dealing with severe problems of environmental damage and overpopulation. According to the UN, worldwide some 25 million acres of prime agricultural land are lost to erosion, salinization, etc. every year. Even in relatively healthy farmlands of North America, the topsoil is slowly disappearing. About 1 mm is lost each year. And much of the soil that remains is losing its nutrients. Where the nutrient content of the soil falls, crop yields and nutritional value fall with it. So many of our productive soils are now dependent on artificial fertilizers that, if we were to experience a serious oil crisis, it is doubtful that even we could feed ourselves. We've used oil to replace some of the nutrients that we've taken from the soil. Oil — energy stored over millions of years — has allowed us temporarily to prosper well beyond normal the limits of the earth. We can't do that forever. We're going to have to change our ways.

Fortunately, we still have time, but not a whole lot of it. We can rescue ourselves. It will take serious effort on our part and on the part of those around us. We're going to have to change our farming practices. We're going to have to change our habits as 'consumers.' We must live more simply. Seriously, we're going to have to reduce our fertility as well and slowly reduce our population. Either we take advantage of our intelligence and human compassion or nature will do it for us — in a very, very unpleasant way.

Here's a list of actions you can take to help ensure rewarding, healthy lives for all of us:

1. Buy organic or biodynamic. These methods of agriculture, at least as practiced on smaller family farms, actually build soil over the years. This applies not only to food, but to clothing, too. The Organic Consumers Association has lots of useful information, specifically for clothing.

2. As always, eat low on the food chain. It takes many times more grain (and, thus, more soil nutrients) to eat meat than to get the same protein yourself directly from plants.

3. Practice birth control. If we want a lot of humans to experience the joys of life on this planet, it is far better that we spread them over many, many generations than crowd them all into a few miserable ones.

4. Live simply. As much as possible, live with what already exists. Houses, bicycles, whatever. In this unequal world, it leaves much more for others to subsist on. And drive as little as possible. We're going to need the oil you save to ease the transition towards more a sustainable agriculture sustaining a more sustainable population. If you must drive, try to drive the most fuel-efficient vehicle you can.

5. Spread the word. This is important. Speak to your friends. Support others and organizations working to get the word out - like EarthSave.

Some of these suggestions may mean economic hardship in the short term. Unfortunately, ours is a sick society founded on greed and unsustainable growth. It will be painful to break free from that hold. But either we do so on our own or, very, very likely, nature will sooner or later force us to do so.