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Facing Soil Crisis, US Farmers Look Beyond Corn and Soybeans (csmonitor.com)
Corn and soybean crops have been good to farmers in the American Midwest and Plains. But these staple crops have taken a toll on the very earth they draw nourishment from. Now, a new generation of farmers is looking underground to try to replenish their soils in a way that both restores nutrients and reduces chemical runoff into the environment. From a report: "Mainstream agriculture, they just don't get it," says North Dakota farmer Jerry Doan. "You have got to feed the biology of the soil." Some farmers are experimenting with growing cover crops on their fields. Devoting valuable land to new crops can be risky for producers, whose thin margins make them reluctant to make big changes if their yields are going to fall, even temporarily. But in some communities, such as Washington County, Iowa, farmers are taking the leap together.
Farming has moved so far beyond this article that I am not sure why it was even published. No-till farming has been in use heavily for over 30 years. For those that don't know what this means, farmers don't continuously plow their fields before planing and after harvest. This keeps the topsoil in-tact and far more healthy as well as promotes the worm population which is very important and a key sign of the health of the soil. These are just a few of the major items because there is not enough space to fully elaborate. In the last 10 years, the use of cover crops alone has become the normal here in MI which reduces herbicide use and promotes organic material in the soil. Bottom line: the farmers of today are far better maintainers of land than then used to be and there is no worries that the world will end or another dust bowl is in our future.
You'd have to be some kind of super-moron to miss the intrinsic benefits of not spraying poisonous chemicals all over something you plan to eat, why clean food is inherently worth more money and is of higher quality.
I'm not surprised that they're this stupid.
But I am surprised that there are people in the world who are aware enough about the existence of farming to talk about it, but think that cover crops are an "experimental" idea.
Really? So all those societies and civilizations that depended on annuals or annually harvested root crops like corn, wheat, rice, millet, cassava, potato, yam, sweet potato, taro, teff, ect. have all collapsed because of their crop choice? Sounds like something someone who knows bugger all about the topic would say to sound contrary.
What perennials staples are there? Polynesian societies made heavy use of breadfruit, and in SE Asia there's sago (the palm, not the cycad), and plantains in some parts of the world, so there's a few. Ensete are perennial, high yielding too, but they need dug up, which is apparently not what your Youtube guy is talking about. Besides that, bit of peach palm in the Amazon might count, a negligible amount of screw pine in Kiribati, maybe some wattleseed amount some Australian aboriginal groups. I'm all for increasing their cultivation but it's not really looking good for the historical victory of those species there.
I just can't see any way that statement holds true, at least, any more true than saying 'Every ancient society that drank water eventually collapsed!'. Also, there's no need for a link shortener on a site that doesn't have meaningful character limits.