California rancher Nathan Carver delivers hay to feed his herd of beef cattle at a ranch which has been in the family for five generations Credit: Inside Climate News
Over the past decade, farmers in the Great Southern Plains have suffered the worst drought conditions since the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. They’ve battled heat, dust storms and in recent weeks, fires that devoured more than 900,000 acres and killed thousands of cattle.
These extreme conditions are being fueled by climate change. But a new report from an environmental advocacy group says they’re also being driven by federal crop insurance policy that encourages farmers to continue planting crops on compromised land, year after year.
“Dust bowl conditions are coming back. Drought is back. Dust storms are back. All the climate models show the weather getting worse,” said Craig Cox of the Environmental Working Group (EWG), which released the report Wednesday. “You’d think the imperative would be on adaptation, so we don’t make the same mistakes we did back in the 1930s.”
But, Cox explained, a […]
This is critically important! We must begin the return to growing our own food locally using permaculture / biodynamic methods to restore our soil. Continuing on the current path we will be forced to change and at that point it will be even more difficult. Sadly, our culture and government waits until crisis to jump into action if at all. Individuals and communities have the power to take the lead. Grow something! Hemp has many restorative benefits to the soil – which we need now in every state! Thanks Stephan for highlighting this issue!
The practice of raking up all the yard debris, shipping it off to the recycler, then buying it back in the form of mulch is too ridiculous to try to explain, save for the existence of our well-oiled brain-washing machine, the advertising industry.
There are dozens of examples of what can go wrong when large amounts of the same plant cultivars are grown together, year after year. Think of it this way….you are a damaging pest who (lucky you) spies a HUGE swath of your favorite dinner menu at the edge of the horizon. What would you do? Why, you’d fly right over (after signaling your buddies) and start chawing down. It’s a smorgasbord. That’s just one aspect of how our human-centered life practices.
I mean, we are the most advanced species ever, right? Hmmm….not so much, if you consider the outcomes and this has been happening for well over 100 years.
We need to grow our food as explained by Mark R. Everybody has their own plot (and it doesn’t have to be huge either) to grow the foods they like. Rotate the location of the plot of grow what doesn’t require rotation to refresh the soil. You can set up an automated drip system and there is very little effort required, save the patrol for ripening produce. It should be considered an aspect of good citizenry.