Could depletion of fertile soil trigger a bigger U.S. food crisis?
By Ted Kelly posted on March 9, 2021
U.S. farmland in the Midwest has lost over one-third of the soil necessary to sustain crop production, according to scientists at University of Massachusetts, Amherst. The study concluded that fertile soil has been destroyed not as a result of natural wind and water erosion, but by a century of overplowing. (tinyurl.com/wps8c99c)
Topsoil is the “black, organic, [carbon and mineral] rich soil that’s really good for growing crops,” said Evan Thaler, Ph.D. student at UMass. Topsoil accumulates over centuries and is teeming with microorganisms.
Farming has destroyed a lot of the rich soil of America's Midwestern prairie. A team of scientists just came up with a staggering new estimate for
One third of the cropland in the upper Midwest has entirely lost its fertile topsoil, according to a new study. Other scientists doubt that figure, but agree that soil loss is a big problem.
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New Evidence Shows Fertile Soil Gone From Midwestern Farms ketr.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from ketr.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.