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The Nation’s Corn Belt Has Lost a Third of Its Topsoil
https://www.smithsonianmag.com ^ | APRIL 14, 2021 | By Becca Dzombak

Posted on 04/15/2021 11:31:07 AM PDT by RomanSoldier19

click here to read article


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To: RomanSoldier19

What outrageous lies.

Given the roots in the ground from intensive farming and widespread application of animal waste, topsoil is likely increasing.


61 posted on 04/15/2021 12:45:17 PM PDT by jjotto (Blessed are You LORD, who crushes enemies and subdues the wicked.w)
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To: Hodar

“So, untold billions of ton of topsoil just vanished?”

My father in law was a volunteer fireman. He said their motto was “we always save the lot”.

Their guideline to avoid excessive water damage was “don’t turn on the water until the doorknobs are hot”.


62 posted on 04/15/2021 12:51:25 PM PDT by cymbeline
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To: RayChuang88

Lack of markets for soy beans.

China cut us off.


63 posted on 04/15/2021 12:53:52 PM PDT by redgolum (If this culture today is civilization, I will be the barbarian)
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To: RomanSoldier19
... clumps of trees ...
They’re called copses, Becca.
64 posted on 04/15/2021 1:14:47 PM PDT by eastsider
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To: traderrob6

Yea, yields are really on their way down, lol! Land that grew 75 bushel corn in a good year now grows 175 bu corn. That’s how the soil has been degraded in the last 50 years.


65 posted on 04/15/2021 1:24:07 PM PDT by allwrong57
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To: RomanSoldier19

The wages of sin is death.


66 posted on 04/15/2021 1:34:26 PM PDT by MrBambaLaMamba (Kickbacks and graft for oligarchs, free crack and hookers for oligarch's children is infrastructure )
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To: RomanSoldier19

Oh bullshit!!! Another climate change link to utter nonsense!


67 posted on 04/15/2021 2:31:28 PM PDT by SgtHooper (If you remember the 60's, YOU WEREN'T THERE!)
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To: NEMDF

Feed lots! Mechanized feed lots of thousands of cattle!


68 posted on 04/15/2021 2:33:19 PM PDT by SgtHooper (If you remember the 60's, YOU WEREN'T THERE!)
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To: RomanSoldier19

Why this story just now all of a sudden?Who benefits! Why the urgency just now?


69 posted on 04/15/2021 3:14:34 PM PDT by ldish (WAS Jan 6th-Last OPP? NO-but we CONSERVATIVES now know we should've been there!)
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To: RomanSoldier19

Farming is mining. The plants do mine the minerals and matter from the soil. Furthermore, have you ever watched discing and plowing on a dry day and all the soil dust getting kicked up and blown away? After years it does make a difference. No till drill planting does make a difference. Rotational grazing does allow the grass to stay more lush and hold the sil in place. Most crop farmers do not also have animals, whereas all their crops fed animals and now that are putting manure back down. Just my 2 cents. Mud washed away, blown away, is dirt lost for good.


70 posted on 04/15/2021 3:32:13 PM PDT by inchworm (al )
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To: curdogmen

It is gorgeous. SO happy to live here. Not leaving, unless it’s Feet First. And then, once ashes, I’ll return here.

I’m gonna make some GREAT Top Soil! ;)


71 posted on 04/15/2021 4:10:00 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin (I don't have 'Hobbies.' I'm developing a robust post-Apocalyptic skill set. )
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To: traderrob6

Yep. Total crock of sh__.


72 posted on 04/15/2021 4:44:20 PM PDT by virgil (The evil that men do lives after them )
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To: allwrong57

We made 239 bushels of corn per acre last year on ground that yielded 35 bushels per acre when my grandad started farming.


73 posted on 04/15/2021 4:57:15 PM PDT by Mr. Lucky
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To: Mr. Lucky

One of my neighbors is an agronomist/consultant. Impressive stuff they do these days on everything from corn and soybeans to cucumbers and watermelons.


74 posted on 04/15/2021 5:00:18 PM PDT by nascarnation (ro)
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To: RomanSoldier19

sure you can grow flowers and weeds and have no soil churn in a controlled, fenced, environment. Not much nutrition comes from flowers and weeds, tho. In the real ‘environmental’ world of 150-200 years ago, tens of millions of hoofs of bison would have torn that flower and weed plot to shreds and carved hugh swaths across the landscape of barren, compacted ground, laying the foundation to what was to become the Dustbowl days and general lack of topsoil and fertility of Western lands that America has yet to recover from.


75 posted on 04/15/2021 6:31:30 PM PDT by blueplum ("...this moment is your moment: it belongs to you... " President Donald J. Trump, Jan 20, 2017) )
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To: traderrob6

Geez, ya beat me to it!!

And me with only a geology degree!


76 posted on 04/15/2021 7:37:15 PM PDT by Cuttnhorse (Nothing dies harder than a lie that people want to believe)
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To: Politically Correct
The US is light years ahead of most countries in care for our soil.

Which is why less than 2% of the population is involved in food production and we manage to feed our country and export grains and food to the rest of the world.

77 posted on 04/15/2021 7:41:28 PM PDT by Cuttnhorse (Nothing dies harder than a lie that people want to believe)
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To: ridesthemiles

“ In Wisconsin, cow manure is NO LONGER ALLOWED to be put back onto the land. It is put into tanks as slurry & trucked AWAY from the farm...... INSANITY.”

Yet I can still put the manure from the fine people of Milwaukee on my lawn.

https://www.milorganite.com/


78 posted on 04/15/2021 8:36:46 PM PDT by jdsteel ("A Republic, Madam, if you can keep it." Sorry Ben, looks like we blew it.)
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To: Mr. Lucky

yep, the yields are going to hell, lol! The idiot that wrote it has probably never seen a cornfield.


79 posted on 04/16/2021 10:22:21 AM PDT by allwrong57
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To: RomanSoldier19

Smithsonian magazine says we have a dirt crisis....
Just rotate crops.


80 posted on 04/16/2021 10:41:53 AM PDT by minnesota_bound (I need more money. )
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