Flint on Crops: Soil Health Is the Hope of the Future

Here is a university scientist who really understands that soil is the foundation for regenerative agriculture. Dr. Flint provides an excellent summary regarding the urgency to get control over our US food production methods that destroy soils, and thus our civilization’s ability to feed itself in the future. Over time, more and more consumers, policy makers, government and NGO staff, and perhaps even farmers and ranchers, will understand the need to produce food WHILE regenerating soil health. If you want to learn how to do this now, please join us in Michigan in September at the Grassfed Exchange!

-Todd Churchill
Founder – Thousand Hills Cattle Company
Board Member – Grassfed Exchange



Flint on Crops: Soil Health Is the Hope of the Future

By Ernie Flint, Mississippi State University May 25, 2015 15:43

There are many things that could be listed as needed for the future of civilization. The list that might be made by any individual would likely be weighted in favor of their own background and experience. However there is one subject which affects every person and every animal on Earth, the soil. Others may place more emphasis on air or water, but I feel it is justifiable to place the soil on a level equal to or possibly even higher than these.

The soil is the living body upon which we depend for all of the plants that provide food, fiber, and most of the material we use for shelter. These plants also produce the oxygen we breathe and they efficiently remove pollutants from both air and water. The soil is the bonding agent which holds all the components of life together, but we usually ignore its importance as if it is an inexhaustible resource while nothing could be farther from the truth.

As we look around the globe at the availability of farmland, or “arable” land we see that we are losing about one percent of it every year. In the U.S. about 41 million acres of rural land has been taken over by urban sprawl in the last 30 years, with approximately 14 million considered as prime cropland. Soil erosion has degraded much of the land that has remained in production, reducing its potential for sustaining our food supply in the future.

Awareness of the impact of diminishing farmland has varied a lot through the years, reaching a high point during the Dust Bowl era of the 1930’s. The rush to expand urban areas to accommodate the movement of people from rural to urban areas caused us to ignore the problem until recent years when the reality of increasing population came to the forefront of the discussion.

There are at least two basic principles that should be observed in order to conserve soil and to preserve its “health” and productivity. The control of soil loss is the most visible of these as shown by the result of long term tillage and erosion that we see in many areas of our nation, particularly here in the South where millions of acres were intensively tilled until they were no longer productive.

The other factor which is less visible is the development of soil organic matter. This may also be referred to as “carbon sequestration”, the term used by those who stress the importance of greenhouse gases and global warming. Although I do not agree with them on most of their theories I do agree that carbon should be retained in the soil in the form of organic matter which will help reduce soil loss since it supports aggregation of soil particles.

The take home message here is that soil should be tilled much less and it should be kept covered with vegetation or mulch. The decomposition of this material will in turn raise soil carbon levels, and instead of being in the air it will be in the soil. Less fertilization will then be required since nutrients will be retained and recycled rather than being carried downstream.

By now I have probably been labeled as a radical environmentalist, but instead I hope that some may see that I am only a realist. We can no longer afford to farm as if this is the last year and the future will not matter. Regardless of how pessimistic we get about our world today people like us will need to feed themselves in the future. Let’s leave them enough land and good soil to live.

Thanks for your time.