CIVILIZATION RETS ON TOPSOI

Topsoil is what it takes to grow edible plants and foods. Americans are used to believing that their farmland and ability to feed the nation are unlimited and can go on forever. However, it appears that the topsoil has already been eroded by 1/3 due to inefficient farming methods and another 1/3 will disappear in the next 12 years. Rebuilding topsoil takes 25 years. Economic interests will continue to use the most profitable methods to farm because they need to be competitive but these methods are destroying the very farming capability that they use. However, if changes are not made, soon there will be no farming capability for anyone.

As consumers, and stewards of this earth, we need to pressure companies to use our natural resources, including water and soil, in sustainable ways. Agribusiness is just as guilty of abusing the environment as big oil, strip mining, and other profit-oriented corporations. If we allow them to destroy the topsoil that grows the foods we eat, we will all starve. As consumers we need to make it clear to agribusiness that this is not acceptable.

For more information, see the speech by activist and actor Eddie Albert, reprinted in Mother Earth News:

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Nature-Community/1980-05-01/Civilization-Rests-on-Topsoil.aspx