NSW Soil Loss Five Times Replacement Rate; China Losing Topsoil At 57X Replacement Rate

YOU’VE heard of “peak oil”, but what about “peak phosphate”, or even worse “peak soil”? The latter two were among alarming prospects raised by speakers at the third annual Carbon Farming conference in Orange last week. “Peak oil” refers to the time, considered to be imminent if not already here, when the maximum rate of global oil extraction is reached, after which production would enter terminal decline, leading to increasing oil shortages and steadily rising prices.

One conference speaker suggested availability of phosphate to make fertilisers was facing a similar crisis, another that the world could run out of usable soil within about 60 years.

The possibility of “peak soil” was raised by Professor John Crawford, of the University of Sydney’s Institute of Sustainable Solutions, who said Europe was losing soil at the rate of 17 tonnes a hectare, and in China soil was being lost at 57 times the rate at which it could be replaced. In NSW the rate of soil loss was five times the speed of replacement, he said.

The conference – organised by Carbon Farmers of Australia, which is headed by Goolma district farmers, Michael and Louisa Kiely – featured a strong bias towards biological farming and related alternative soil management practices.

EDIT

http://theland.farmonline.com.au/news/state/agribusiness-and-general/general/experts-worry-over-peak-soil/1674679.aspx

except we are running out of water, too.

...important for all life, screwing up that cycle is going to fuck the planet up irrevocably, it's the most important in my mind.

There is no waste like in traditional farming.

Good answer!

Going local and reverting to a more organic and careful considered kind of agricultures is becoming more and more likely. The new Victory Gardens are going to be 'survival gardens.'

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