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Tragedy on the American Farm
soil," he says. This official
found it hard lo convince
farmers that their topsoil is
in danger and that they mus!
alter lheir methods of
S
oil crisis is developing
throughout the
midwestern United States.
Few realize its significance.
precious heritage is being
destroyed.
tolerable, as long as it is
litlle more !han !he amount
of soil being annually
regenerated by microbial
activity and plan!
decomposition. But
agricultural officials estímate
lowa loses almost 1Otons
of topsoil an acre each
year.
tillage.
Much of lowa's erosion is
subtle because it is sheet
erosion. That's in contras!
The state of lowa, for
example, is !he richest single
píece of agricultural real
estate in !he world.
Yet tons of lowa's precious
topsoil are being blown and
washed away faster than
natural soil building can
replace il.
lowa had 12 to 16 inches
of marvelous topsoil when
tillage began 100 years
ago. Bu! soil erosion has
dwindled topsoil in many
areas lo 6 or 8 inches. A
"Our best land is in !he
Mississippi delta." say lowa
farmers. This soil loss will
affect, sooner !han many of
you realize, vital U.S. crop
production. Why? Because
productivity is directly
related lo !he depth ot
surface soils and
subsoils.
The earth that is eroding
in lowa and elsewhere in !he
American Midwest is !he
darker, more humus-laden
soil .
1t
is !he kind of soil
most able lo hold water and
nutrients. Sorne soil loss is
On sorne lowa farms
topsoil losses are severa!
times this shocking state
average.
lo more noticeable rill or
gully erosion. Sheet erosion
is caused by water or wind
traveling across !he surface
of land and removing soil
fairly evenly, almos! like
peeling a sheet of paper
from a giant pad. One ton of
soil an acre is only about
!he thickness of a sheet of
heavy paper. Ten sheet
thicknesses of soil may not
seem like much bu! it is
devastating year alter year.
and abandoned cropland. Salinity is
rapidly kill ing soils in the produc–
tive Imperial Valley of Southern
California, and soils in Mexico and
in Argentina.
Another U.N. report highl ighted
soi l deter iora t ion a nd c ropland
Josses in t he Andean region of
South America. In Colombia alone,
erosion robs more than 400 mi ll ion
tons of fertile topsoi l ayear- a pre–
cious resource t he economically
struggl ing nation cannot afford to
lose.
T he Nepalese government est i–
mates that country's r ivers annually
carry 240 million cubic meters of
soi l to India. T his loss is described
as Nepal's ..most precious ex–
port."
Soil erosion is creating an eco–
logical emergency in J ava (part of
Indonesia).
lt
is one of the world 's
most populated islands. Deforesta–
t ion and misuse of hillside arcas are
destroying land faster than recla–
mat ion prog r ams can poss ib ly
restore them.
T he New China News Agency
recently repor ted a shortage of fuel
for cooking is forcing China's 800
million peasants to stri p vegetation
from large tracts of land. The result
is serious soil erosion and growth of
deserts.
26
" Without soil we're
nothing," says one lowa soil
conservation official. " Many
farmers really don'! believe
there is a finite amount of
Dr. Min Ameiya, an lowa
Many food authorities see little
chance to increase cropland areas
worldwide. Instead , urban expan–
sion, shopping centers and growing
ind ust ry gobble up sizable amounts
of prime lands. Highways. of con–
crete and acres of asphalt parking
lots eat up more.
Each year thousands of addition–
aJ acres of once-productive vaJJeys
are ftooded behind new dams.
And just whe n even greater
inc reases are needed from the
world 's exist ing soils, food authori–
ties point out that food production
increases are leveling off, despite
ever-increasing amounts of fertiliz–
ers poured on them. Many food
officials feel the dramat ic increases
in food product ion of the 1960s and
J970s are over. T he soil is begin–
ning to rebel. It has been abused
and mined.
It
will not sustain past
high yields.
The True Cause
God created the earth and the liv–
ing soi l upon it. God commanded
mankind to ..d ress and keep it," not
pollu te and destroy it (Genesis
2: 15). But from the beginning, man
rebelled against his Creator. He
chose to live by the "get" way of
life, instead of God's ..give" or
..love" way.
The dest ruct ion and kill ing of
the world's soi ls is the result of
human individuals and nations liv–
ing the wrong way of life. W rong
agricu l tu re takes- gets- mo r e
from the so i 1 tha n i s being
returned- given back- to it. Man
is not giving back essential ele–
ments and nutrients and giving it
the tender care, protection and rest
it needs to keep it fer ti le and work–
able.
Selfishness and short-sighted–
ness, along with population and
economic pressures, are causing
farmers throughout the world to
throw many sound agr icul t ura! and
conservation practices to the wind .
Instead, man subs titutes soil prac–
tices that damage or ruin soils for
short-term profits.
Today, rapidly fad ing from mind
or altogether forgotten are con–
ceros for maintenance of organic
matter such as ma nu res and
decayed plan t li fe i n the soil.
Organic matter, or humus, helps
maintain proper ti lth, or soil st ruc–
t ure, so plants and soi l organisms
breathe properly and feed prop–
erly.
Farm animals don' t even exist on
many farms anymore to assist in
this job. Often manu re is piled up
on huge cattle feedlots where it
The
PLAIN TRUTH