I thought Dennis Avery's statement about the The Soil and Water
Conservation Society of America was worth looking into. Here's what Dennis
said:
"The Soil and Water Conservation Society of America says that modern
farming with hybrid seeds, irrigation, chemical fertilizer, integrated pest
management with pesticides, and conservation tillage, which also needs
herbicides to help prevent soil erosion, they say this is the most
sustainable farming in history."
Here's what the Soil and Water Conservation Society of America web site says:
http://www.swcs.org/POLICY/policies.htm
Sustainable Agriculture
<snip>
A productive, profitable agriculture cannot continue to exist if it does
not sustain the soil, water, air, and biological systems in a productive
state. Numerous civilizations in the past have failed because the soil and
water resources were damaged beyond the point of productive use. However,
these civilizations did not have access to our knowledge of agronomic and
ecological systems. This knowledge points out that we cannot continue to
rely on nonrenewable resource inputs including fossil fuels, pesticides,
and fertilizers that mask yield-depressing effects of soil degradation,
mine the soil resource, and degrade the surrounding ecosystem.
<snip>
Only in the very recent past, around 1940, did the use of fertilizers and
pesticides begin to dominate farming in industrialized nations, and
particularly in North America. These technologies, when applied to crops
bred to take advantage of the greater inputs, markedly increased yields. It
is not likely that North American agriculture will ever again see such a
large magnitude gain in yield from technological advances, despite
continued scientific developments in areas such as plant and animal
genetics.
However, these modern farming techniques have also had unintended
consequences. Soil erosion increased, fragile lands were brought into
production, water quality deteriorated, biological diversity was lessened,
and surpluses
accumulated.
Nathan Boone
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