[duke3522]

From reading many of the threads on this forum I have seen that one of the main points of the “what are we worried about” folks is that US agriculture will grow our way out of the Peak Oil problem. That just by using the ‘waste’ in the US agriculture system we will be able to produce plenty of energy. I think these folks need to go out and take a closer look. I know the info I provide below is based on my personal experience, and if anyone has a different experience please speak up.

For about the last five years, due to DW’s illness, I have let the farmer, who is on 3 sides of my little homestead, plant my back acre of land. During the five years the farmer used the ground he rotated soy beans and corn and used conventional farming practices using standard fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides.

This year I have taken back that acre so that we can start a garden to help us get through the tough times ahead. As we began to put in our new garden we have come to the sad realization that our poor little acre of ground is dead. No earthworms, no bacteria, no anything. Just a bunch of dirt that reminds me of soil-less commercial potting media they use in large greenhouse operations. A sterile, lifeless media, used to keep the plant roots in place. This really shocked me because before I let the farmer use the area it was rich in earthworms, and just about anything we planted back there would give a good crop. Now I don’t think the area will grow much of anything without a significant input of fertilizer.

The condition of my little acre got me thinking about the big picture in agriculture and an important question came to mind. What is the condition of the commercially farmed fields?

Of course my answer can only be for this area, but as I have traveled central Indiana over the past two months I have made it a point to stop and take a look at as many fields as I could looking to get an idea of the over all condition. And I found that condition to be about the same as my back acre. Nowhere did I find a commercial field where the soil was alive with the bacteria and earthworms essential to sustainable agriculture. My conclusion is that the large majority of commercial farm land here in central Indiana is composed of soil that is no more than a sterile media used only to hold the roots of corn and soy beans in place while heavy applications of fertilizer provide the plants nutrition.

This look at the commercial fields in the area has led me to realize, should products such as fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides suddenly become economically unattainable for area farmers, the crop production from these fields would plummet. Making the agricultural feedstock for energy production, meat production, and other uses increase substantially in price.

And as for using the agricultural ‘waste’ from these fields for conversion to energy. The problem I see here is that this ‘waste‘ is the only compostable material returned to these fields. Removing the corn stalks and soy bean straw will only make the fields more sterile and even more dependent on chemical fertilizer.

I know that the above information relate only to Indiana. But since Indiana farmers use standard farming practices it is not to far of a stretch to assume that most commercial farmland in the country is in the same condition.

So the big picture is that while I see the conversion of agricultural feedstock to energy as a way to soften the impact of peak oil, I cannot see a future where agriculture will provide us with enough cheap, readily available, energy to replace oil. Commercial agriculture is incredibly dependent on petroleum based feedstock. From farm chemicals, to drying machines, to the belts, hoses, and tires on the tractors modern farming cannot continue to maintain today’s incredibly high yields without cheap oil and other fossil fuels

[holmes]

we are already on the other side of the bell shaped curve of production to oil based additives. We are inputting more and more oil based additives and crop production is going down. soils are jsut being depeleted.
Has been for years now. Look it up. So there already is a problem. We will go broke as tax payers eventually subsidizing a failed doomed system that produces less with more. No one ever talks about this bell shaped curve that we are already on the other side of.

[Leanan]

Very true. There was no "waste" on old-style family farms. Everything was composted back into the soil - was needed for that purpose. Manure was a valuable commodity, not a waste product like it is on today's factory farms.

We might turn human waste into fuel. It doesn't make good fertilizer, because the way we process it concentrates heavy metals in it. And we could mine plastic from the dumps; that can be turned into petroleum.

[Pops]

I agree that removing the so-called waste from crop residue is only adding insult to injury.

But transitioning from high input methods to sustainable will be a very thorny act. I do believe we should make the transition, but I also believe it will be much more expensive for the consumer than most realize.

The market only responds to surplus / deficit supply, not input costs. Corn, soybeans etc are traded by speculators just like oil futures – have been for over 100 years.

Last years bumper-crop has the markets down this year, right at the time fuel and fertilizer prices are up, luckily farmers have the benefit of a good year. Of course the incentive is to grow ever more to make more money or at least stand still, but as long as margins are slim the pressure will be to “get a bigger truck” - grow in acreage {Edit: I should have said "increase in acerage"}. This is just the opposite of the sustainable route. I heard on the farm news that in many areas last years profits are going in just that direction – enlarging the farm.

But at the point input costs exceed income, the only recourse a farmer has is to borrow more, change tactics or quit farming. I worry that the further down the road the farmers go in the “Bigger” direction, the harder the “Little is better” change in tactic will be to achieve. The other option of borrowing more and the ultimate extension of that – quitting, will lead to even bigger problems.


I believe in a free market. OTOH, the futures market system where many middlemen (futures traders) never take delivery of a commodity, merely hold on to a contract hoping to make a killing, adds nothing of value except making the market more competitive. In squeezing the margin and siphoning profits from the farmer - profits that might allow him to act in the longer-term interest of the land, the futures system encourages the growth and industrialization of agriculture. Futures markets have good points for the buyers and sellers both – it’s the speculators that bother me.

It really doesn’t matter whether the end product is food or fuel, the pressure to expand acreage and need for ever more inputs is the result of the farmer being made simply another low-wage assembly line worker as opposed to “the one that feeds us all…”

[RonMN]

Get planting alphalph NOW to renew that little acre of yours...burrying wood/bark chips & leaves wouldn't hurt either!

[Ebyss]

Excellent thread. To the OP, if I may recommend Masanobu Fukuoka's books; he talks about the very thing you are talking about: soil depletion due to intensive (and unnecessary) farming methods. He also talks baout ways to regenerate soils, although admittedly, this is a long process taking years. I just think people who are so removed from their food now that they don't see the reality of large scale, "industrialised" agriculture and how much damage it is doing to the land. Ultimately, it is the soil that feeds us, whether with vegetables, meat or grain.

[lawnchair]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Leanan', '
')We might turn human waste into fuel. It doesn't make good fertilizer, because the way we process it concentrates heavy metals in it.

[Leanan]

The main problem with using (nonprocessed) human waste as fertilizer is disease. Not much of a problem in the wild, but living in high density as we do, disease is always a problem. We may not have the luxury of being picky, though.

I believe in the free market...but not for food. The free market is a lot better at reacting to the past than it as at anticipating the future. That's okay if you're manufacturing widgets, but not if you're growing a crop. People have a tendency to jump into whatever is selling at the best prices. That tends to produce a "feast or famine" cycle. If they don't make enough iPods and you have to go without, oh, well. If they don't grow enough food, you're screwed. That's why the government offers farm subsidies. Lousy as that system is, we need it.

[retiredguy]

Madison sells composted and processed human waste as MetroGro. Their trucks and injectors are a common sight in the corn fields here in the spring.

Milwaukee has been selling human compost (Milorganite) at least since the 50's. My grandfather (in Minnesota) used to spread it on his lawn.

I can't believe that other municipalities aren't doing this, too.

[oowolf]

duke, what the so-called "farmer" did to your land is known by the Orwellian term "green revolution" which is essentially using fossil fuel products as a substitute for living agriculture. This has produced a huge population increase which is in NO WAY sustainable and will shortly lead to the long anticipated Malthusian Catastrophe.
http://www.onelang.com/encyclopedia/ind ... atastrophe
This detritovore agriculture
http://www.energybulletin.net/4632.html
explained clearly by William Catton Jr. in Overshoot: The Ecological Basis of Revolutionary Change"
is already well into its inevitable and inescapable decline, leaving most of humanity with soil unfit for even preindustrial levels of human sustenance.
Horrific dieoff is guaranteed.

Your soil been strip-mined and probably poisoned. This condition can be corrected but will take time. Get busy.

[MonteQuest]

Good thread! I am learning be succinct, so here goes.

"In nature, there are no wastes." And I quote myself from another thread.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MonteQuest', 'M')y farm uses neither inorganic fertilizers nor pesticides. It has virgin prairie and stands of virgin timber and is a haven for wildlife. Other farmers would have turned this into cropland by now. While our crop yields are usually much less, the saved costs involved for fertilizers and pesticides and equipment offset the difference over time. And since we don’t have the upfront capital costs, we can wait for the market to rise, while most farmers must sell right away to service their debt. When we plow, the birds flock to the fields for the worms and insects in the soil. This rarely happens on intensively farmed land utilizing petrochemicals.

[DomusAlbion]

Life is in the soil and if the soil is poor it must be rehabilitated.

However, this need not take years as Ebyss stated above. If you have the needed money you can have rich garden soil trucked in for a one time refreshing of the land. Buy and add some worms and some organic materials (calcium, potash, ...) then plant a cover crop of alfalfa or some other legume such as clover and let it sit for 6 months then it's ready to go. From then on add lots of muck and other organic material and it will only become stronger.

[katkinkate]

Humanure is safe and free of disease if it is thoroughly composted or passed through the digestive system of compost worms (that eat the bacteria).

But here's another part of the solution. Permaculture farming and living techniques.
http://www.energybulletin.net/524.html

Also Mr Fukuoka's minimalist techniques outlined here.
http://www.seedballs.com/gmmfpa.html

Rebuilding our agricultural land and our lives post peakoil will necessitate more than an change in soil additives, but a change in attidude and world view.

[pea-jay]

Trying to get people in my agricultural county to understand how out of whack our agriculture system is a real challenge. We have collectively as a county, completely bought into industrial Ag--lock, stock and (stinkin') barrelful. Our farms have increased in size, mechanization and use of pesticide inputs. My office is surrounded on 3 sides by fields and I always get to witness something new being done to the soil in the name of higher yields.

The farmer to the south plants two crops per year (this being California our winters permit this). So twice a year after he harvests, he plows then grades then re-plows so there is absolutely NOTHING other than dirt, devoid of any trace of crop. The process is dusty and when the wind kicks up too much some of the farmer's dirt (this is not soil in my book) winds up dusting our cars or leaving the property altogether.

The farmer to the west has lands tied up in grapes and walnuts, so there is no plowing. But each year he has his crops doused from above with pesticide, while walnut harvest consist of these machines that drive up and down the orchard, shaking the tree so the nuts fall out.

The farmer to the north also plants a variety of row crops. Like the southern farmer, he levels his field with absolute engineering precision. Plus this year he injected his fields with pesticides so strong that the entire 40+ acres needed to be covered with plastic wrap so the chemicals wouldnt leach out during the rainy season. 40 acres of shrink wrapped farmland sounds like something foo-foo that Cristo the artist would do until you realize you'll probably be eating the stuff grown in that same dirt a few months to a year later.

Be glad you aren't working those fields though. Farmer North usually cultivates labor intensive crops that actually are planted, maintained and picked by hand. Farmworkers really have it crappy here.

It's all quite disappointing when you really think about what we have gotten ourselves into when we bought into the modernization of agriculture. It's also very worrisome if we experience a fast crash because our high energy farm system is also very vulnerable to disruption as well. Transitioning to a low energy, full organic, nutrient capturing agriculture system like BioIntensive, Fukowa, or Lion Kuntz will not yield overnight results. Cuba face a cut-off of oil which resulted in food shortages that ultimately led to a few years of lean eating before yields picked up with low-input strategies. ANd that was with good government assistance and planning.

If we are going to sucessfully transition, we better do it soon and start making our plans accordingly.

[holmes]

well we need not worry too much becuase it wont start failing probably near my 80's im 35. But if you have kids try and leave them a tract they can garden and grow fruit. something at least. because the soil conditions and ag land are not getting better in the US and the world. But Its too bad this bell shaped curve isnt discussed much. But just buy your food in bulk quantities and it will keep your costs down. But even bulk foods prices are going up. and the farmers and the system are to blame. The farmers should have been more intuitive when it came to the environment. but plow and drain is their mantra still. and the system forces them as well. The farmers out in short grass prairies who left the prairie dogs, prairie potholes and the sage grouse and buffalo are still in business the others are leaving. Thats why land is cheap and plentifull now. Ghost towns out there now. However the aquifers are poisoned and drained down. so whatevers out there will have to migrate eventually.

[Ebyss]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pea-jay', '
') Plus this year he injected his fields with pesticides so strong that the entire 40+ acres needed to be covered with plastic wrap so the chemicals wouldnt leach out during the rainy season.

[pea-jay]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', ' ')I can't believe what I'm reading. That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard.

[Ebyss]

Great blog pea-jay. I agree completely with what you've said. Unfortunately, nobody in government is going to listen while John Deere holds the reins. They simply make too much money. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot, the mroe they rely on fossil fuel inputs, the harder it's going to be to change over. The shrink wrapped farm is the last straw (no pun intended), I still can't believe anyone could be that stupid. I'd love to know what his yields were and how they compared to organic yields.

Btw, the worldagexpo site seems to be down... but I'll check back on it later.

[ArimoDave]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pea-jay', '
')
Be glad you aren't working those fields though. Farmer North usually cultivates labor intensive crops that actually are planted, maintained and picked by hand. Farmworkers really have it crappy here.

[highlander]

Before you all rush out to your local wastewater treatment plant to purchase sludge as a soil amendment, google personal and pharmaceutical care products. These chemicals are not destroyed in the biological processes used in treating sewage. USGS found these compounds in nearly every surface water body they tested. They are also finding them in groundwater (from septic systems). The long term effects of these chemicals are not well understood, but aberrations in sex ratios, low testosterone levels in males, etc indicate chronic effects at levels below those standard testing methods are able to detect.