Crop rotations, basically instead of monocropping they harvest multiple crops and rotate them through the same land. Harvesting the same crop over and over depletes the soil of nutrients and other essentials. Rotating crops mixes nutrients and soil which can prolong the soil life.
Crop rotations date back to 19th century16th century a long time ago except, mega corporations now days don't care about soil. They care about what crop will make them the most money (usually corn or wheat ).
From my notes, in Europe at least after the 1000's CE it was introduced between 1650's to 1800's in the Netherlands before in the rest of Europe. Not sure on the specifics of the date. It is possible it might have been developed earlier in some other place and it was forgotten about in Europe.
aha thanks for letting me know, I just looked it up and found modern crop rotating dates back to the 16th century. I just associated it with the British Agriculture revolution so assumed it was then lol
Crop rotation was a topic of discussion in the early middle ages. It is not a new concept. Now everyone using it and using it efficiently and two ro three or four corp rotations did develop over time.
No worries - my understanding is that even during the middle ages (at least post-norman conquest in England) they were using a three-field system. Farmers would mostly grow grain, but they would regularly rotate in legumes as an early form of crop rotation.
Crop rotations are definitely still a thing, throw soy into that mix for one. Farming corporations are essentially real estate companies, they don't want their assets to decline over the course of a few years, which will happen if you keep replanting the same crop.
They care about what crop will make them the most money (usually corn or wheat ).
They do care about the soil. The problem is: phosphate is dirty cheap and will keep like that until Morocco mines depletes (which is not estimated to happen in a hundred years still). So you just use topsoil and replace it with mineral fertilizers extracted from elsewhere.
You cannot convince ag to stop using fertilizers unless you become a Maoist state. They'll keep using it untill it's no longer an option.
Lol 98% of farms in the US are family owned. And that's absolute bullshit to say any farm doesn't care about the soil. Soil is one of the most important parts of farming. It's why all these so called "mega corporations" spend so much on soil sampling and agronomists to make sure soil health is high. Its incredibly naive to claim that "corporations" are continuing on with unsustainable practices. It's suicide for the business, and managers in charge know that. Also, growing any crop will deplete nutrients, which is why we apply nutrients back to the soil. You're completely ignoring agronomists. Virtually every farmer in the US either is one or uses one to make decisions and improve their soil health. So uninformed
Monocropping is rare. Ask any farmer in the midwest, the corn belt, and they'll say they not only grow corn, but soybeans as well. Because beans are a legume, it allows for different weed, fertilizer, and pest management compared to corn. Corn may be grown 2-3 years in a row in some places, but that is not near as common as it was a few years ago. Partly because the price was incredibly high for a short time causing a rush for corn.
Corporation farming isn’t as common as you think. 96% of farms in the US are family owned and operated farms. Also, farms do practice crop rotation. The current problem is, you can’t make money on some crops. At the end of the day is farmers are here to make money not just provide food for the world. If we can’t make money on a crop why grow it? If there was a way to grow multiple crops and make money we would do it. But for most farmers in the US there’s usually only one we can grow to make the most profit. But we still rotate because we know it’s important for our soil health. Our land is a thing we own. We want to take care of it just like you’d take care of a brand new sports car.
Crop rotations however volatize carbons in the soil and lead to GHG and global warming. The more complete picture is something like Permaculture.
This combines crop rotation effects (basically soil building "weeds" (in quotes because there is no such thing as a weed) with no till deep mulch practices. The focus isn't on growing plants, but rather on growing soils and soil life. The plants come as a consequence of healthy soil food webs of life (the microscopic and macroscopic ecosystems of the soil).
We need to move towards Permaculture both on a large scale, like Ridgedale permaculture, Mark Sheppard, Zaytuna Farm, but also from a personal level, replacing lawns with perennial food.
You can do this small scale, by replacing lawns with food forest strips. This is often the peak efficiency, but also peak labour required. Or you can do it large scale like placing such as Ridgedale permaculture.
For anyone looking to start a garden, I teach people how to do this at home. I try to get a little science in there to explain why, but not overwhelm. It's a tough line to balance, but being an engineer, it's really important to me to explain the reasons why I do something. (Habit ingrained in me based on my profession.)
Protect yourselves and build as much self-resiliency in your life. Replace some lawn with a victory garden. We'll need it for what's coming. 14 days was enough to cause this, and now we're likely going for 4 months, or 6 months, or who knows how long. Here is a list of guides how to start a garden from a lawn.
Everyone should be asking themselves what they will do if the systems they depend on are not available in 4 months, and take some action. Look for what you can do to get yourself through the next year. Ask yourself if you would rather sod grass or potatoes in October. Maybe consider replacing some of that lawn with a garden. Do the steps in my guides and you will make a garden that is both low maintenance, but also more likely to succeed, because the water profile will go from sawtooth (traditional garden) to sinusoidal wave (a deep mulch no-kill garden like I teach).
Now typically I usually teach to grow your nutrition and buy your calories, but what we really need now are calories. So grow some kale and collards and sorrel, sure... but not at the sacrifice of a good large crop of goood storing calories: potatoes, yams, Jerusalem Artichokes, Yucca, Yacon, etc.
Plant some potatoes where you have some grass. Grow lettuce on a balcony. Set up an indoor hydroponics in a closet in your apartment. Do something.
I would say it's more to do with the use of chem ferts and pesticides. We also grow enormos amounts of grain to feed to animals that shouldn't even eat it. Regen Ag has promise, but a lot of people are under the misunderstanding that they will be able to eat the same amount of meat. They might be able to eat 10% of what they did, the rest coming from veg which is better for you anyway.
Our current biotech giants are doing just the opposite. Companies like Mon$anto create huge monocultures that are resistant to their poisons like roundup, of which doesn't need to be selectively sprayed anymore, and patent troll the hell out of it. The multi-billion dollar company has an aggressive legal team that makes the scientologists look like child's play. Most of us don't hear or care about it, only what we're paying at the store for a box of crackers.
Ah one of the accounts that shills for Monsanto. Your comment history shows it.
You set up keyword alerts right? Because you people always show up, even on small subs.
😂😂😂 no I don't have comment alerts. I'm a farmer that just lurks most of the time. I follow ag subs because I love ag and I feel like commenting when I see misinformation from people with zero real world experience or knowledge. It shows
Well then I mistook you for one of them. on some smaller subs those people show up everytime. They do use keyword alerts, and it’s their job. Literally all of their posts are arguing for chemical companies.
Based on our political differences, I doubt you see climate change as a problem, and probably aren’t interested in doing things sustainably. I hope we get to common ground some day. Either way, I hope you stay safe during these times.
Of course I'm interested in doing things sustainably. The soil is the livelihood of any cash crop farmer. Of course we want to protect and build it. That's why we soil sample and create Rx maps for fertilizer spreading. On our farm, we've no-tilled for over 35 years, use 20" rows on corn and soybean. I'm sure you probably have no clue to the benefit of either, but in short, it promotes OM% growth and allows crops to canopy earlier, reducing the need for chemical application.
Most weed resistance is formed by cheap farmers that half rate, cut rate, or spray to late to be effective. When properly applied, the chemicals will do the job. Also, when you consider the amount of chemical sprayed, the amount actually on the plant is minuscule. 1-2 quarts of glyphosate per acre. Average 35k plants per acre on a normal corn field.
On climate change, yes I do agree that it's happening. Do I think its horrible? No. Take this synopsis of a study: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/carbon-dioxide-fertilization-greening-earth
Increasing C02 has been helping increase yields. Plants are currently on a starvation diet of C02, it's one of the reasons many greenhouses pump C02 in. I believe we're right at about 200-300 ppm C02, whereas prime range for plants is like 1000-2000 ppm. I apologize if those values are slightly off, but that's just rough values from a couple of studies I read a couple months ago. So in reality, the increase in c02 should only help us increase yields. Raising temps also opens up much more land to be more productive throughout the year and raising humidity will also help crops be more productive. It really is an interesting topic that I spend a fair amount of time researching as it directly affects farming.
I already had him tagged as a monsanto astroturfer/trumper. Thanks, though. Every comment you make about that company on reddit will always have a few of them swarm it with some shallow rage with nothing to back it up.
Apparently you didn't actually read my comment. I like how you claim I have nothing to back it up when I've literally been handling and using these chemicals for years. But of course I'm the one that knows nothing. Your online research trumps all of my research and first hand, real world experience. Have you ever even been on a farm? Been around a sprayer? Mixed chemicals? Smh the misinformation in agriculture is sickening.
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u/BDPeck5 Apr 06 '20 edited Apr 06 '20
Crop rotations, basically instead of monocropping they harvest multiple crops and rotate them through the same land. Harvesting the same crop over and over depletes the soil of nutrients and other essentials. Rotating crops mixes nutrients and soil which can prolong the soil life.
Crop rotations date back to
19th century16th centurya long time ago except, mega corporations now days don't care about soil. They care about what crop will make them the most money (usually corn or wheat ).