Climate Change is ever on my mind

Edited for accessibility-readability from https://www.facebook.com/groups/biodynamic.community/permalink/3057131207711906/

[quote:] “Soil fertility is every farm’s most important capital item, and life — organization, organic matter, living carbon-based life — is the key component makes soils fertile. Too bad, but we can’t just order up a truckload of life, spread it and make our land fertile. We have to feed life. …

“Every crop we grow, every commodity we produce, needs to contribute to making our farms more fertile. If on the one hand we can figure out how to maximize our biomass production; and on the other, how to maximize our digestive activity on the other, we will build life and intelligence into our farms.”

I can think of many reasons farmers share much responsibility for global warming:

- Plowing, discing,

- Use of salty fertilizers — especially urea, nitrates and anhydrous ammonia.

This has taken our topsoils from 10% organic matter down to 1.5%. Over millions of acres, this meant a lot of carbon going up into the air.

- Plus the amount of time the soil stays bare reduces the capture of carbon,

- Plus the millions of tons of pesticides applied annually has impaired the life in our soils. This too has reduced soil carbon content,

- Plus we have tainted our waters and atmosphere with toxic chemistry reducing the life there too.