April 1981 RAIN Page 13 ing new poisons. Pesticides must be integrated into a more holistic, biologically based strategy of control where a variety of methods are used ... i.e., integrated pest control. 5. The Dramatic Loss of Productive Agricultural Land. According to USDA statistics the U. S. has already lost at least 1/3 of its topsoil in the last 200 years. Nearly 240 million acres (twice the size of California) have been ruined for agriculture by erosion. Since 1945 the U.S. has lost about 45 million acres (size of Oklahoma). Annual losses from sheet and rill erosion alone are now set at 2 billion tons per year .. . enough to cover all the cropland of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New Hampshire with 7 inches of topsoil. These astounding figures boil down to an average net topsoil loss of at least one inch every four years. Assuming an average worth of $1,000 per acre for cropland, this soil loss amounts to more than $17 billion each year! But more than money, erosion is the loss of an irreplaceable resource. In addition to erosion, we are also losing cropland to salinity, depletion of groundwater, acid rains and suburban sprawl. In about 30 years rock phosphate, like petroleum, will become an unpredictable political resource. 6. The Complete Dependency of Agriculture on Non-Renewable Resources, Especially Fossil Fuels and Rock Phosphate. U.S. agriculture is now entirely subsidized by fossil fuel technologies like tractors, chemical fertilizers/pesticides, irrigation pumping systems, etc. In fact the entire food system now revolves around a complex food distribution network that stretches across the entire country by air, rail and road ... from grower, to broker, to processor to consumer ... a system in which food production and consumption are often separated by thousands of miles and hundreds of gallons of gasoline or diesel fuel. It's clear that the energy subsidy and centralization of food distribution can't continue to provide the cornucopia of varied and cheap food in an era of growing fossil fuel shortages, unpredictable foreign influences and rising energy prices. Also, agriculture, historically an energy producer, has become an energy sink . . . consuming about 5 times more (non-renewable) energy than it provides, or about 17 times if we consider the entire food system. A similar situation exists for non-renewable minerals used in agriculture, especially rock phosphate. At present rates of use, U. S. supplies are sufficient for about 30 years. After that we will have to go abroad, and rock phosphate, like petroleum, wilt become an unpredictable political resource. For example, according to a 1977 report by the National Academy of Science: " ... by 1990 Morocco and various Middle Eastern Countries will supply 75% of the world trade in phosphate rock. If this happens, a cartel could easily be formed to control phosphate prices . " 7. The Increasing Dependency on a Few Hybrid Crop Varieties and the Loss of Genetic Information in Cultivated Plants. The demise of regional crop varieties and the widespread use of hybrid monocultures over large areas of the country have destroyed the genetic buffer zones that once held many pest outbreaks in check. A large supply of plant stock (i.e. , genetic diversity) is also the source of continued reservoirs from which to breed varieties of pest-resistant crops. As biological diversity is destroyed so is the potential for adaptation. Again we see an example of modern agriculture creating the conditions for its own vulnerability. . destroying the options for its own survival. It is obvious that yield per acre is no longer a sufficient benchmark for agricultural efficiency. Vast social and environmental costs must also be considered on the balance sheet. The fact that modern agriculture is not commonly seen as a problem, IS a problem in itself. Exactly which resources are people willing to sacrifice to ensure the present food system? Because this question is not even being asked , public ignorance and special interests prevent a rational collective answer. Bu t even if people were willing to pay the cost of lost topsoil, rural culture, environmental quality, farmland , food quality, economic control and public health, these "costs" now pose a threat to the future stability of the system itself. This is because the "advances" of our agriculture, as we have seen, are increasingly dependent on resources and practices that are not sustainable and on the exploitation of resources that are. In other words, the seven major issues outlined above (there are more) are all components of an agriculture that is rapidly destroying itself and its supportive resources. But the strategy of any biological system like agriculture is adaptation , not extinction. Hence, agriculture is committing suicide and that is insane. If agriculture is committing suicide then it is worth asking why it is doing so and , more importantly, what the alternatives are for rescuing it ... for making it sustainable and adaptable in a world that cannot survive without it. For if agriculture is dying it follows that its people are dying also. A recent paper by Dr. Stuart Hill of McGill University entitled: "Soil, Food, Health and Holism : The Search for Sustainable Nourishment," addresses this problem of why, and outlines potentials for alternatives. Hill notes: "The modern food system has become a run-away machine, out of control, increasingly dependent on non-renewable resources, consuming renewables faster than they can be renewed, causing corresponding human and environmental degradation , and producing products that feed our obsessive cont.- · -
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