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.

Comments

Re:easy answer:

[dryeo]

Hemp doesn't replace either of those, as it's uses are primarily as a textile and isn't useful as food for people or animals.

Hemp seed makes excellent food. One of the few plant products with complete proteins, it also has most of the essential oils. Throw in some greens and you could live a long time on a hemp seed diet.
Hemp seed oil is also useful for other products, tons used to be used in the paint industry for example.
Then there is the blas (sp?) that is left over after extracting the fiber from the stems, can be used to make plastics and quite a few other uses.
There's a reason that hemp was made illegal, and it wasn't that it made people stoned, though that was a convenient excuse to get the busybodies on side. hemp illegalization was mostly a Hearst initiative to remove hemp as a competitor to his new pulp paper industry. DuPont and similar companies were onboard as well.

Roll your own

[WolfgangVL]

I've been growing my own produce in 5 gallon buckets in my front and back yards for 2 years running. This summer I'm finally going to do a real bed and irrigation system. Harvest doubled the second time around, after learning a few things the first year. I live deep inner-city, right smack in the middle of a valley in western WA. I Don't use ferts or chems at all, and a package of enough raddish seeds to last years is like a buck. I get that it's GMO seeds, but I'm OK with that. Carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, I'm even doing some garlic but it's got to overwinter? I wish I had some fruit trees.

I started when the family was going extreme budget on everything to solve a few problems, that's past now, but I'll be doing this every year of my life from now on.
I feel like I'm learning a very valuable skill, passing it onto my child, and I can refuse to buy into the "Organic" marketing at the grocery store. I'll make my own, thanks.

It's DAMN easy in the summers here too, even the mild summers of western WA. I just water it, and watch for bugs. Feels great carving my own pumpkins.

I've been told I'm not allowed to grow my own food in my front yard (yeah? sue me fukko) My rain buckets are "stealing" from the local farmers (wanna fight about it?) and my buckets are poisoning my food (says food grade on the can) all by the same helpless snobs I see all over town telling everybody else how to do things. Today, everybody wants to point fingers at people that are actually doing something, and tell them they are doing it wrong, but nobody wants to take a little responsibility themselves and show us what right looks like. You want to be able to tell the farmers their doing it wrong? You need to be able to feed your family without them, otherwise, your just another taker complaining that it's not good enough.

This is the age of big oil protesters in plastic Kyaks, coal powered electric cars, logging protesters passing out paper fliers by the 100s, and recycling zealots sucking down water bottled in non-reusable plastic. 9/10 times, the whole noble message is overpowered by us humans being assholes. Change starts with you, Mr. Journalist man, show us what right looks like.

The most satisfying thing of the year? Eating a salad.