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RESOLVING THE 10,000 - YEAR CONFLICT BETWEEN AGRICULTURE AND NATURE
Thomas Stanton Cox
; The Land Institute in Salina
Sažetak
Agriculture's impact on the Earth has been worsened by industrial farming, but the fundamental problem goes back 10,000 years to the domestication of those annual crops that are still the staples of our food supply. When we think of how many civilizations built on annual cropping have fallen not to the sword but to the plow and of the soil and water degradation that continues to haunt agriculture, we can only lament the fact that the domesticators didn't focus more on erosion-resistant perennial species. Three-fourths of the world's foodproducing land is, and will continue to be sown to grains, legumes, and oilseeds. Annual crop species, with their ephemeral, usually shallow root systems, are incapable of fostering a thriving soil microflora or micro-managing nutrients and water in the way communities of perennial plants do. The means that modern agriculture relies upon to overcome the weaknesses of annual crops cannot simultaneously resolve all of the key problems. No-till methods curtail erosion in the top layer of soil but, done consistently on a large scale, they require unacceptable levels of chemical inputs and leave the lower soil profile unimproved. Organic methods eliminate toxic chemicals but not the equally harmful effects of tillage or the soil erosion and water deterioration that occur as consequences. In an effort to resolve the dilemma, a small number of plant breeders in the US, Australia, and other countries are now breeding perennial counterparts of annual grain and legume crops. The difference in seed production between annuals and perennials is a result of contrasting selection pressures during the two groups’ evolutionary histories. Selection pressure applied in yet a different direction by plant breeders can increase seed yield and produce perennial grain crops. When it is done, the 'hardware' represented by perennial grains, combined with the 'software' of organic methods, can finally end the conflict between food production and ecological health.
Ključne riječi
crop domestication; perennial crops; soil erosion; no-till system; organic agriculture
Hrčak ID:
28403
URI
Datum izdavanja:
25.7.2008.
Posjeta: 1.459 *