You do your best to eat well, exercise, and live a healthy lifestyle. However, no matter what you do in your life, there are events taking place that are out of your control. With farming, comes problems such as that of soil deficiency. In order to protect the environment and ensure the health of those living on Earth, it is important to understand what is happening and what can be done to stop or slow down the problem.
Gradually and amazingly, humans have been depleting Earth’s soil resources much faster than the nutrients can be replenished. If this trajectory does not change, soil disintegration, integrated with the effects of climate modification, will create a big danger to international food security over the next century.
Researchers warn that people have actually been diminishing soil nutrients at rates that are of a magnitude greater than our current capability to replenish the soil. Fixing this imbalance is important to global food security over the next century
Farming, which accelerates erosion and nutrient elimination, is the primary game changer in soil health.
“Ever since humans developed agriculture, we’ve been changing the planet and throwing the soil’s nutrition cycle out of balance,” stated Ronald Amundson, a UC Berkeley teacher of environmental science, policy and management. “Because the modifications happen gradually, frequently taking 2 to 3 generations to be discovered, individuals are not cognizant of the geological change occurring.”
It has been stated that soil disintegration has actually accelerated, and we’re now going into a period where the capability of soil, “the living epidermis of the planet,” to support the development of our food supply is plateauing.
A future ‘phosphorous cartel’
Farmers make use of three vital nutrients to fertilize their crops: nitrogen, potassium and phosphorous. The discovery of artificial nitrogen production in the early 1900’s is often credited for significantly increasing crop yields, which in turn supported remarkable developments in worldwide population. Because the process of manufacturing nitrogen is energy-intensive, its supply depends on nonrenewable fuel sources.
Unlike nitrogen, potassium and phosphorous originated from rocks and minerals, and those resources are not equally dispersed throughout the world. The United States has just 1 to 2 percent of the world’s potassium reserves, and its reserves of phosphorous are expected to run out in about 3 years.
“This could develop political difficulties and unpredictability,” said Amundson. “Morocco will soon be the largest source of phosphorous on the planet, followed by China. These two countries will have a large amount of say in the distribution of those resources. Some individuals suggest we will see the introduction of a phosphorous cartel.”
Supporting environmental change
Another danger to soil security is connected to its function as a mass tank for carbon. Left undisturbed, soil can hold onto its stores of carbon for hundreds to thousands of years. The most current price quotes suggest that up to 2,300 gigatons of carbon are kept in the top 3 meters of the Earth’s soil– more carbon than in all the world’s plants and atmosphere combined. One gigaton is equal to a billion tons.
However, agriculture’s physical interruption of soil releases saved carbon into the atmosphere. Based upon the location of land used for farming worldwide, 50 to 70 gigatons of carbon has been released into the atmosphere throughout human history. Supporters of sequestration, the long-lasting storage of carbon in soil, have suggested that regaining this carbon will be a means to reduce continuing nonrenewable fuel source emissions of the greenhouse gas.
Of certain concern are the large carbon stores in the soil in the world’s polar areas. Scientists have discovered that temperatures are increasing at greater rates in the northern latitudes.
“Warming those areas resembles filling your freezer with food, then pulling the plug and going on holiday,” said Amundson. “There will be a huge feast of germs feeding upon the food as the plug gets pulled on the stored carbon in the frozen soil. Microorganisms are currently beginning the procedure of converting the carbon to CO2 and methane.”
Recycling soil nutrients
The human dependence on farming is recognized and the majority of the Earth’s most efficient soils are already in agricultural production. However, better management of the soil is needed.
One proposal is to stop discarding nutrients caught in waste treatment centers. Currently, phosphorous and potassium are concentrated into solid waste instead of cycled back into the soil. Additionally, more effective management is needed to reduce losses from soil. Excess nitrogen, for instance, is thought about as a contaminant, with the runoff sapping oxygen from the country’s waterways, suffocating water life and developing dead zones in seaside margins.
Amundson noted that it did not take too long to get individuals to begin separating paper, glass and aluminum cans from their garbage for recycling.
“We should have the ability to do this with soil,” stated Amundson. “The nutrients lost can be captured, recycled and put back into the ground. We have the skillset to recycle a great deal of nutrients, however the supreme deciders are individuals who create policy. It’s not a scientific problem. It’s a social issue.”
It is essential to be aware of what agriculture farming and other industries do to the soil and the environment. The way consumers and producers take care of their fields and property is going to have an effect on the ground and atmosphere, as well as how people will be able to thrive in and around that area.
What Can You Do?
Our modern diets are nearly completely devoid of the vital minerals our bodies need to thrive. The best way to ensure your optimal health is to supplement what is lacking.
Learn More about the 90 Essential Minerals and Nutrients that your body needs here