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The U.S. corn belt has lost a third of its topsoil

smithsonianmag.com

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Re: The U.S. corn belt has lost a third of its topsoil

#161

Post by koolba »

ed25519FUUU wrote: post #155
drawkbox wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agriculture also reduces the root depth as crops are harvested fast and regular iterations. This was a large cause of the Dust Bowl issue. There was a great post on this on reddit that has photo for reference. [1][2][3] Cover crops help this now to prevent Dust Bowl like conditions and bad soil where possible [4]. Side note: Most carbon capture also happens in the root of wild grasses and plants. It isn't just agricu…

HOAs are a scourge. I’d love to see more states scale back the power of HOAs.

I doubt there’s much State’s can do to stop HOAs from existing. It’s a contract between the homeowners. There’s a lot of economy of scale for group maintenance as well (e.g. landscaping costs are significantly less for adjacent properties).

Like most things in the USA, you can vote with your wallet and live somewhere that doesn’t have an HOA.

Re: The U.S. corn belt has lost a third of its topsoil

#162

Post by insert_coin »

dagss wrote: post #111
titzer wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I come from a long line of farmers. My father was the last of our family to try to hold onto the farming tradition. He grew up on a farm, along with all my aunts and uncles. His generation was the first go to college. He chose business. He made a ton of money, and hated it. After leaving the business world in the mid 1980s to return to farming, it was not the same, and he soon returned to what was effectively day tra…

Makes me think of easter island. When our civilization perishes, money will seem as useful as those statues.

Money is very useful now, very very useful. Things do not need to last forever to have value.

Re: The U.S. corn belt has lost a third of its topsoil

#163

Post by tamcap »

koolba wrote: post #161
ed25519FUUU wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HOAs are a scourge. I’d love to see more states scale back the power of HOAs.

I doubt there’s much State’s can do to stop HOAs from existing. It’s a contract between the homeowners. There’s a lot of economy of scale for group maintenance as well (e.g. landscaping costs are significantly less for adjacent properties). Like most things in the USA, you can vote with your wallet and live somewhere that doesn’t have an HOA.

A lot of contract clauses have been found void and unenforceable. Same could (and should) happen to many HOA covenants. The fact that you are unable to buy housing in many zip codes without HOA, and there are even some states (ie Texas) where you can be forced into an HOA (even if you own the house clear of one) is just insane.

Re: The U.S. corn belt has lost a third of its topsoil

#164

Post by 99_00 »

colineartheta wrote: post #154
99_00 wrote: post #68

Right now there is no financial incentive to preserve topsoil. In the future there will be. So why artificially create incentive to pay the higher cost now when we can punt to the future where technology will be so much better and the cost will probably be lower?

What makes your you think that in the future there will be financial incentive?

If there is no financial insetive in the future it's because we don't need top soil in the corn belt and we saved ourselves and he cost of dealing with this problem which ended up being irrelevant.

Re: The U.S. corn belt has lost a third of its topsoil

#165

Post by fukmbas »

stakkur wrote: post #38

Yes. But most of the crop grown in that 'corn belt' is not for human consumption, it's for feeding livestock. We're destroying farmland to feed our need for meat. The rest of the crop in the Corn Belt--soybeans--is mostly exported abroad.

Mm mm love my steak

Re: The U.S. corn belt has lost a third of its topsoil

#166

Post by Johnny555 »

titzer wrote: post #58
gumby wrote: post #2

Modern farming is not the bucolic system drawn on the food packages in the supermarket. It's an extractive industry little different from mining or oil drilling. In fact industrial food is largely eating oil, both in energy intensity itself and the use of oil as feedstock for fertilizers and food additives.

I come from a long line of farmers. My father was the last of our family to try to hold onto the farming tradition. He grew up on a farm, along with all my aunts and uncles. His generation was the first go to college. He chose business. He made a ton of money, and hated it. After leaving the business world in the mid 1980s to return to farming, it was not the same, and he soon returned to what was effectively day tra…

My dad came from a farming family (dad worked in construction, but 3 of his brothers and 2 sisters had farms). Over time, they all lost or gave up their farms because they couldn't compete against the corporate farms. Two of them continued to farm their own land after selling their farms, but they no longer lived there.

Re: The U.S. corn belt has lost a third of its topsoil

#167

Post by khuey »

koolba wrote: post #161
ed25519FUUU wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HOAs are a scourge. I’d love to see more states scale back the power of HOAs.

I doubt there’s much State’s can do to stop HOAs from existing. It’s a contract between the homeowners. There’s a lot of economy of scale for group maintenance as well (e.g. landscaping costs are significantly less for adjacent properties). Like most things in the USA, you can vote with your wallet and live somewhere that doesn’t have an HOA.

The state can decline to enforce contracts it considers against the public interest.

Re: The U.S. corn belt has lost a third of its topsoil

#168

Post by whatever1 »

tamcap wrote: post #163
koolba wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt there’s much State’s can do to stop HOAs from existing. It’s a contract between the homeowners. There’s a lot of economy of scale for group maintenance as well (e.g. landscaping costs are significantly less for adjacent properties). Like most things in the USA, you can vote with your wallet and live somewhere that doesn’t have an HOA.

A lot of contract clauses have been found void and unenforceable. Same could (and should) happen to many HOA covenants. The fact that you are unable to buy housing in many zip codes without HOA, and there are even some states (ie Texas) where you can be forced into an HOA (even if you own the house clear of one) is just insane.

The power we are giving to HOAs is insane. They can ruin your life. There is a case that I know where a person of color was accused by his white neighbors for WFH, thus using his house for business purposes, thus violating the HOA contract, thus they initiated an eviction.

It is an ablolute mess.

Re: The U.S. corn belt has lost a third of its topsoil

#169

Post by hourislate »

Just imagine how much Glyphosate has been dumped on that soil. Don't know if it's true but someone once told me nothing will grow in a corn field for 5 years afterwards unless it is roundup ready.

There has been a lot of talk lately we are like 60 harvests away from disaster.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/only-60-years-of-...

*Generating three centimeters of top soil takes 1,000 years*

We are f...ed the way things are going. Might have to start gardening locally (back yard) or hope Indoor vertical farming takes off.

Re: The U.S. corn belt has lost a third of its topsoil

#170

Post by Scoundreller »

hourislate wrote: post #169

Just imagine how much Glyphosate has been dumped on that soil. Don't know if it's true but someone once told me nothing will grow in a corn field for 5 years afterwards unless it is roundup ready. There has been a lot of talk lately we are like 60 harvests away from disaster. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/only-60-years-of-... *Generating three centimeters of top soil takes 1,000 years* We are f...ed the…

> Might have to start gardening locally (back yard)

No reason not to start now depending on where you are. I grow for flavour and value not calories.

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