[Terrapreta] Black soil

[Mark Ludlow]

I worked in the USDA-SCS Technical Service Center in Lincoln, NE in the
'60s. Most of the publications we distributed then concerned windbreaks;
grassed waterways to help prevent the formation of gulleys; formation and
retention of wildlife habitat by deliberate stacking of brush and scrub
trees; and the advocacy of contour plowing and terracing; pond building; and
of course, tiling--to help transform the natural wetlands into corn and
sorghum fields.

 

In some places the topsoil was seven-feet thick (even though the significant
amounts had been lost during the dustbowl days). A few years later 10-bottom
plows became the norm and windbreaks and other conservation measures impeded
the march of progress and were largely eliminated. Even contour plowing was
largely ignored. The lessons of the Great Depression were forgotten and
large annual soil losses were considered to be one of the costs of
industrialized agriculture. The soils are still there (or perhaps at the
Mississippi Delta), but apart from no-till not many movements toward soil
conservation have taken hold. The "World's Greatest County Fair" in Clay
County, Iowa, spends its first week evoking the old county fair tractor
pulls; but now huge leviathans for reshaping the earth have replaced the
machines that in turn replaced the ox and moldboard plow. Bankers are
standing by to finance this transformation of agriculture into agribusiness
and Monsanto and DuPont are there to sell the seeds and chemicals that,
year-after-year, help us to forget how important stewardship of the land--on
which we all depend--really is.

 

Mark

 

 

From: terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org
[mailto:terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of Richard Haard
Sent: Tuesday, June 03, 2008 10:08 AM
To: Terrapreta
Cc: Todd Jones; David MacLeod; Mike Doss; Nana Paldi
Subject: [Terrapreta] Black soil

 

Not <http://www.flickr.com/photos/rchaard/2548787688/>  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
<http://www.flickr.com/photos/rchaard/2524482744/in/set-72157605258762126/>
image, this
<http://www.flickr.com/photos/rchaard/2524482796/sizes/o/in/set-721576052587
62126/>  image and this
<http://www.flickr.com/photos/rchaard/2524506450/sizes/o/in/set-721576052587
62126/>  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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