Super Soil!

Anna Courtney
3-10-11
SUPER SOIL!
The world is being faced with many challenges with a growing population. The main issue we see ourselves facing is: how are we going to produce enough food to support this enormous population? Not only in the U.S. but also around the world soils are degrading fast. Even in the most productive soils farmers are applying fertilizers and using new conservation practices. This is only skimming the surface of what must be done, and will it not solve the atrocious issue at hand; producing enough yields to support an inclining population. Fertilizers are expensive and are ruining waterways, and natural habitats, and even with the best conservation plans, soil will still erode, and become depleted in nutrients over time. We are lucky to have such fertile soils in the United States; we do not feel the pressure and strain of a lack of food, but what happens when we no longer have these fertile soils? Lets take a look back centuries ago to the ancient Amazon civilizations, which have some of the most acidic and poorly growing soils on earth. Or did they?
In recent years, scientists have discovered a very productive dark soil in the Amazon, which is thought to be human made, they call it terra preta or “dark earth”. It is believed that these advanced civilizations made their own soil by slowly burning wood, turning it to charcoal, mixing it with other biodegradable material and then buried it within the soil. By doing this it puts carbon back into the soil along with many other nutrients plants need to grow. According to National Geographic News this “process would lock much carbon that would gave otherwise escaped into the atmosphere in the biochar. The biochar could then be put underground, in a new form of terra preta, thereby sequestering the carbon for centuries.” Also, charcoal holds much more water for longer periods of time and the charcoal would start to neutralize the soils. These improvements to the soils are natural, cheap, produce higher yields, and do not require chemical fertilizers. It is thought the invention of terra preta soils are the reason why these once poor, acidic soils could support high populations, which did not have to move from place to place.
If these ancient civilizations could figure out how to live sustainably and enrich their soils without chemicals, why has it taken us so long? I do not see how we have any other option but to start moving backward and take a lesson from those who had it all figured out from the start. By taking this idea and applying it to farming around the world we could improve the health and population of the world. Society’s in Africa can settle to one area and stop clear-cutting their land, the Middle East could improve their soils, and we could keep our fertile soil without using expensive fertilizers. This would also help slow global warming; it would release less carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and store carbon that would have otherwise been release into the soil for centuries. This super soil could allow us to save millions, will we let it?
References:
Roach, John. "Superdirt Made Lost Amazon Cities Possible?" Daily Nature and Science News and Headlines | National Geographic News. Web. 06 Mar. 2011. .