sebb@pyuxss.UUCP (S Badian) (01/27/84)
I'll always take up a new subject. Let's see what do I know about dirt? What rabbit!jj says is exactly what I've heard-we are depleting our soil and water at a frightful rate. In the not too distant future we will find that the bread basket is empty. I get that the feeling that farming has lost its concern for the land and has become big business. Growing food is big $$$ and it looks like a lot of the farmers are awfully short sighted. Individual farmers are hard to fault. Most are so in debt that to ask them to spend even a little more money to help save their land is asking too much. Maybe the government should consider subsidizing them to help them make these changes. The big farming corporations must just be cheap and short-sighted; not an unusual disease. There are effective ways to grow crops so that the soil and the water is not wasted. Look what Israel has done with a desert! They are careful because they have to be. We are wasteful because we can afford to be. I think it shows a total lack of concern and a fixation with thinking in the present and ignoring the dim, dreary future. We have the same problem with oil. We waste it because it is still relatively cheap. But everyone with half a brain must realize that it can't last forever. Are we going to again get caught with our pants down when we realize that our farmland is deteriorating at an alarming rate? When the oil really does get expensive and rare? It's just plain stupid to believe that the problem will go away. So what do we do? At this point in time, with unbelievable grain surpluses, it is very difficult to get anyone to spend money on soil revitalization. But then, they'll be sorry and so will we. Sharon Badian P.S. A related subject-I heard on the radio a little while ago that California is getting very concerned about their air pollution problem. They figure that the state will lose many millions of $$$ because of crop damage caused by air pollution. Now there's a state with a problem! One of the largest farming states in the country and their air is turning bad. I want to see how they handle it.