[Terrapreta] Black soil

[Richard Haard]

Not all black soil soil is Terra Preta

On a recent trip to NW Iowa for my wife's class reunion we visited  
this virgin prairie to look at wildflowers. A mole had pushed up the  
native soil showing this beautiful organic rich loam. Imagine settling  
in this place 150 years ago in tall grass prairie and tacking the job  
of draining this wet land for the plow. Today these lands still show  
soils with this dark color, the rains come in moderation when needed  
and soil  nutrition stays in place. At road cuts this black soil  
profile shown no bottom.

There are not many places in the world with this kind of soil/ climate  
combination. Russia, where else?

This image, this image and this image show farming in the grain belt  
of Iowa a mere 50 to 70 years ago. How this has changed has been a  
consolidation of farms, depopulation of the small towns and their  
decentralized business infrastructure is gone. I have a feeling the  
cycle of resource depletion will take us back to this style of life  
eventually.

I had opportunity to talk with some farmer / ex classmates of Karen's  
and they told me the boon in corn prices have farmers abandoning the  
corn/soybean rotation and using more fertilizer for equal production.

Interviewing further I was told at least 4 agrobuiz farmers in the NW  
corner of Iowa were operating large corn / soybean farms in Brazil.  
Moving this technology of agriculture for economic benefit may be  
sustainable with continued heavy fertilization in the corn belt but is  
it  a disaster about to unfold in the tropics where climate leaches  
the soil and organic matter is transient.

Is terra preta nova a solution for agrobuiz intensive of agriculture  
in either place?

Rich
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