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I think that the biggest problem with agriculture today is that it's utterly unsustainable. It is ran on fossil fuels and we need to mine minerals for the ferti
by raptorraver 6y ago
I think that the biggest problem with agriculture today is that it's utterly unsustainable. It is ran on fossil fuels and we need to mine minerals for the fertilizers. But still the most worrying issue is that the modern farming is consuming topsoil and we will run out of it in 60 years if we don't change our methods [1].
There are interesting things going on in regenerative agriculture scene where the main idea is to produce new topsoil and through that make farming sustainable. Here is a nice lecture by Richard Perkins - who is one of the most famous regenartive agriculture advocate - explaining the principles of it in a lecture he kept in a food hackaton. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Knn7ZH4Tiw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Knn7ZH4Tiw
(1) https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/may/30/topsoil-farming-agriculture-food-toxic-america https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/may/30/topsoil-farm...
- spthorn60 6y agoThe kicker for me was reading the very consumable Dirt to Soil [1], written by a farmer who's applying regenerative ag techniques on a large scale, and very profitably. Transitioning from input-dependent, technology-sucking financially-overextended traditional monocropping IS POSSIBLE. This isn't just your backyard garden anymore. Something needs to change in mainstream ag. I'm moving onto a small farm to do something about it, in my small corner of the world.
- yencabulator 6y agoYou've managed to describe exactly what annoyed me about these two posts. OP's argument is that whatever is cheapest this year is the only thing that should ever be done. We definitely need something better than current farming practices.