[GrizzAdams]

Here is a part of Richard Manning's essay, The Oil We Eat.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'C')orn, rice, and wheat are especially adapted to catastrophe. It is their niche. In the natural scheme of things, a catastrophe would create a blank slate, bare soil, that was good for them. Then, under normal circumstances, succession would quickly dose that niche The animals would colonize. Their roots would stabilize the soil, accumulate organic matter, provide cover. Eventually the catastrophic niche would close. Farming is the process of ripping that niche open again and again. It is an annual artificial catastrophe, and it requires the equivalent of three or four tons of TNT per acre for a modern American farm. Iowa's fields require the energy of 4,000 Nagasaki bombs every year.

Iowa is almost all fields now. Little prairie remains and if you can find what Iowans call a "postage stamp" remnant of some, it most likely will abut a cornfield. This allows an observation. Walk from the prairie to the field, and you probably will step down about six feet, as if the land had been stolen from beneath you. Settlers' accounts of the prairie conquest mention a sound, a series of pops, like pistol shots, the sound of stout grass roots breaking before a moldboard plow. A robbery was in progress.

[erl]

That was an excellent article. I am going to order his book.

[SurvivalAcres]

I remember reading books about prairie life as a kid that talked about the difficulty of plowing the prairie up.

Six feet. Wow. Unbelievable soil erosion.

[Specop_007]

Pay ya 3 bucks you find that 6 foot drop hes claiming.

[Paul64]

I have had great insights from Manning's writings.

Personally, though it is expensive, for many years now I have avoided eating much of this kind of mega-crop food in favor of a lower-carb diet of mostly uncooked vegetables, low sugar fruits, grass-fed beef and lamb, and deep-sea fish, to the benefit of my health and energy level. More on that at http://www.westonaprice.org

Post PO I may not have all the good food options I have now, but thankfully there are good food sources in the western part of my state; I am considering doing an internship on an organic farm next spring.

[GrizzAdams]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Specop_007', 'P')ay ya 3 bucks you find that 6 foot drop hes claiming.

[Specop_007]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('GrizzAdams', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Specop_007', 'P')ay ya 3 bucks you find that 6 foot drop hes claiming.

[GrizzAdams]

Sure, I think 6 feet wouldn't be out of the question. I mean, I haven't went and whipped out a tape measure and did any precise calculations, but it looks in most cases, that there is a significant drop-off. But when one looks at the ways that industrial and most private farming are done, it seems there shouldn't be much surprise that all this erosion is taking place.

And I see where you are coming from in "creative journalism." Richard Manning is more of a writer, and not so much a scientist. But I still think his writings are not too far fetched, after all, he is pretty much a non-fiction writer and does a lot of research.

Also, I have found a good site on sustainable farming vs. industrial farming.
Sustainable Farming vs. Industrial Farming