3 ms·
True: location is important. Tropical vs. temperate, elevation, rainfall, etc. And of course its composition. The other lesson is that soils can take a long ti
by RetroTechie 3y ago
True: location is important. Tropical vs. temperate, elevation, rainfall, etc. And of course its composition.
The other lesson is that soils can take a long time to build up (on the order of ~1 cm. per year iirc, if that). Modern agriculture mostly takes from that, tending to leave degraded soils behind.
Some agriculture 'breadbasket' areas are only that because soils there had centuries of relatively little disturbance to build up into a thick, fertile mass.
- bluGill 3y agoModern agriculture.build soil at the rate of about 1mm per year. Up until the 1930s it was really bad, but science has been looking at soil since then and that has gotten out to progressive farmers. Even the typical farmer who is more traditional has learned a lot and maintains existing soil. I doubt there is anything that will build soil at 1cm per year that us sustainable (you can maybe do that rate by taking good soil and moving it)