The ideas below are taken from Petrik Understanding the soil process:
The soil in which we plant crops today has been self perpetuating for
millions of years without man's help. It will continue to do so if we do
not disturb its natural cycle. I think in order to be Sustainable the
natural life cycle of our fields must be kept functional through the
addition of organic matter after the residues from the previous crop have
been depleted in order to build new Bio-Organo-Mineral nutrition for our
next crop. The action cannot be replaced with the water soluble salts or
overdoses of chemical fertilizer which destroy soil life, not build it.
Many farmers are imprisoned in a way of thinking that is
only concerned with levels of chemical fertilizers and must be re-educated
to begin considering the biological processes occurring within the
soil.Todays popular chemical tests of soil do not tell anything about the
decisive life processes. They are merely a yardstick of the mineral
content of the soil and do not help the farmers in knowing how to treat
the fields for future productivity and healthy crops. The whole process
misses the basic point that a true purpose of agriculture is to recycle
life to capture the life factore from decomposing organic material and
channel it into new growing plants.
By using wrong fertilizers,excessive chemicals and heavy machinery,we are
destroying our soil,our fields,our farms our water and our future.
The questionable intitial success of chemical agriculture seemed so
complete that it became the only game in town. The chemical companies
fund most of the agricultural school research programs aned influence the
education of the graduates who become the teachers and government farm
advisors. They all seem to speak from the same book.
This is food for thought.
what do you all think. to me sustainable agriculture must mean organic
farming.The use and cost of agricultural chemicals have zoomed in recent
years and now is taking more and more chemical cost to produce the same
results and experts are recommending even more of the same. Farrmers may
be bankrupt before the experts understand how serious things really are.
well thats my 2 cents.