Erosion Explosion

The corn commodity policies and incentives put in place by former Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz (during Nixon's term), whose message to farmers was "go big or get out" and to plant "fencerow to fencerow," have understandably resulted in farmers following his recommendation and expanding their corn fields to take up not only all their fields, but every inch of plow-able land available. As a result, corn fields now dominate land where animals used to graze, and other crops used to grow. The corn now grows from the edge of the farmer's house all the way to their exact property line. Sometimes this means that corn grows in risky places.

images:Gannon, Desmoines Register

Farmers along the Nishnabotna River in Iowa have demonstrated exactly what those risks can be. Susan Heathcote, a water program director at the Iowa Environmental Council recently took a canoe trip down the Nishnabotna and was astounded by what she saw(original article here) While Iowa is renowned for being a state with a very good record of riparian buffers and proper care for its waterways, those areas which are not under some sort of protection are falling prey to corn.

The local farmers have planted as much corn as their plows will allow, and the result is that the very land they intended to profit from is washing down the river on its way to the Mississippi and then to the Gulf. On its way, the soil, (which took thousands of years to form there, and us only a hundred years of industrial agricultural mistakes to wash away) will contribute to the sedimentation of the river, making it less hospitable for living things and mechanical ones.

Standard applications of chemicals destroy the microbial community that holds together the soil, the glue-forming bacteria and the fungal hyphae (which wrap like ropes around the soil particles and hold them together) are either crushed or poisoned, and the structure of the soil collapses, hence erosion, loss of organic matter and farmland fertility, dust-bowls, etc.

Some people, including Ms Heathcote, are calling for people to contact their local government representatives and insist on mandating riparian buffer zones so that the fertile lands of Iowa don't all end up in the ocean. I commend that effort, and would suggest further recommending that farmers start caring for their soil in a way that ensures productivity and at the same time protects waterways, prevents erosion and leaching of chemicals. Those microbes that belong in that soil, that built it and have maintained it for these thousands of years, lets bring them back too, and ensure that our food and the land that grows it doesn't end up taking a cruise down the river.

As an example, I'll show off the work of Hendrikus Schraven of the Hendrikus group. These photos are from a property here in the pacific northwest. A homeowner, living in a recently built home(on the far right in the photo) with a lovely view, was being threatened by erosion. In fact, the hillside was falling away, and before long it would be claiming the house as well. In this image, an application is being made of a microscopically scrutinized compost full of beneficial microorganisms. The microbes build up the structure of the soil, give the plants what they need in terms of nutrients, water, pest/disease protection, and the plants thrive. The slope stabilizes, and bye-bye threat of 'house-toboggan.' Below is actually a picture of the same slope. Look for the tall solitary tree in the background. These healthy established plants flourish because of the help they receive from their billions of microbiological allies, and our homeowner at the top of the hill can rest easily now.


So if simply adding a healthy diverse community of microbes (aka - really good compost) can keep a house from falling into the water, imagine what it could do for some corn!

The erosion problems the Iowa farmers are facing have been brought on by their own practices of cheap, linear solutions that remain blind to the system to which they are part. So, our nation's corn is floating down the Mississippi on its way to Mexico...

Really folks, we can do better than this!