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Short answer, yes. We can feed billions without destroying ecosystems. From the POV of the science of ecology agriculture (from ancient to modern times) is ab

Short answer, yes. We can feed billions without destroying ecosystems. From the POV of the science of ecology agriculture (from ancient to modern times) is about the dumbest way to interact with Nature. It turns out that, once we understood more about how living systems actually work, we can design ecosystems that improve soil fertility and increase biodiversity and biomass over time while providing dense harvests (comparable to or even greater than modern destructive farming.) Look at Permaculture, "Food forests", Syntropic agriculture, regenerative farming... A good start might be "Treating the Farm as an Ecosystem with Gabe Brown Part 1, The 5 Tenets of Soil Health" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUmIdq0D6-A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUmIdq0D6-A

OldHand2018 5y ago
None of the states listed in the article are major agricultural producers! You’ll be glad to hear that some of what used to be “fringe” thinking is becoming mainstream. Cover crops, for example. They have been proven to dramatically reduce pesticide and herbicide needs over time (which will help pollinators greatly). Illinois, Iowa and Indiana have been piloting programs that reduce crop insurance rates for farmers that use cover crops. Once the value was proven, farmer demand exceeded the acreage the pilot programs could offer. So now, for the very first time, the USDA is putting this in place for the entire country (this fall). There is hope.