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A comment on The U.S. corn belt has lost a third of its topsoil. Parent comment

Re:The U.S. corn belt has lost a third of its topsoil by CuriouslyC on Thursday April 15, 2021 @06:04PM (#26826719)
If you don't have topsoil you don't have water retention and you don't have organisms and structure that avoids the need to till for aeration and mineral movement. That means the garbage soil we're left with must be watered from aquifers when it's not constantly raining, and we must till the soil then work in fertilizers, which wastes gas and time.

The path you say has "no cause for panic" is a path to cyclical famine in 50-100 years.

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Re:The U.S. corn belt has lost a third of its topsoil by corty on Friday April 16, 2021 @04:21AM (#26831097)
The path to famine is exponential population growth. No need for agriculture to fail as well. We do have bigger fish to fry than worry about soil quality as long as it is still fixable with fertilizer.
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Re:The U.S. corn belt has lost a third of its topsoil by CuriouslyC on Friday April 16, 2021 @09:01AM (#26833335)
Personally I think the way of life that is destroying the topsoil is at the heart of most of our problems, and if we reverted to a more pastoral life where people are more connected to nature and the food they eat in some way a lot of issues we're facing would magically disappear. Most depression, obesity (with related health issues) and a good part of climate change are all a result of our messed up lifestyles.
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