A Better Way (Part One)

 The river looks a little murky most of the time. But it’s beautifully clear in a drought. Before the plow all of them were clear.

We have a lake nearby called Beed’s Lake. There is an association dedicated to cleaning it up. Geese are partly to blame for the E. coli contamination that keeps people out of it. Farmers are special so their role is excused.

The water running into the lake does not run clear. Farmers are stuck in the sodbuster days, believing that human intervention makes better soil. This contributes to the Gulf of America’s (haha) dead zone as the soil, manure, and fertilizer eventually deplete the oxygen and kill the fish there. Louisiana fishermen are exempt from the compassion of Iowa farmers. When a motorist signals to a pedestrian that he is welcome to cross, they smile and care about each other. But the same sort of consideration for a fisherman 1,000 miles downriver is too much trouble.

After the millions of years it took God to create our wonderful soil, these farmers think they are smarter than He. There’s a $3 million cement pond in Hampton full of disinfectant so we can still swim safely. And we can cook the E. coli out of the fish we catch in the lake, so who cares? Just wash your hands before you eat that sandwich. You might get an unplanned intestinal purge.

We should care as long as we support federal crop insurance and the corn lobby. We all subsidize the poison lake.

It is widely believed that melons grow best in sandy, well drained soil. We have heavy black soil at our place that produces abundant melons because it drains as well as sand but has the nutrient availability of a high organic matter foundation for plants. Why is that? Because we leave it alone. We cultivate a spot for the seed to get it planted then mulch to regulate soil temperature and weed growth.

A cubic foot of soil holds more creatures than the earth holds people. Billions of bacteria, fungi and mycelia, protozoa, and nematodes form a community along with spiders, mites, beetles, ants, millipedes, centipedes, and earthworms. All these creatures burrow, eat, and excrete, forming cracks and tunnels that allow easy root development and access to nutrients. Each tiny resident depends on the activity of the others in a natural balancing act, like in an economy without politicians.

When these communities are destroyed through tillage a cycle of dependency is created. The root friendly soil structure is replaced by powder that tends to form an air- absent slurry when wet and a hard crust when dry. So more tillage is necessary to partially remediate the damage tillage has done in the previous season.

Tillage becomes an addiction. Addiction is expensive. Next week I will discuss a new (old) way to use the land. There is no doubt that farmers are in crisis, almost like in a serfdom, while providing the country with agricultural necessities.

Like the river, the future looks murky. We’ve been conditioned to turn to the government every time some little problem crops up. The government does not have a good track record at solving problems. A good business plan using proven methods is a better idea than bureaucratic guesses. The polluters of Beed’s Lake should pay but it’s not possible to pinpoint the culprits. Increased profits should steer them away from impacting others.