07:03-e-Catalog - Flipbook - Page 76
In the long term, civilisations fail if they
do not respect, understand and look
after their soil, the basis of their food
production. In the past hunter gatherers
required approximately 20 hectares to
live off per person each year; we now
require approximately 0.25 hectare
per person and in 50 years time this
is predicted to fall to 0.1 hectare.
However, before the 1950’s, increased
food production to feed a growing world
population was met by introducing
new land to agriculture. After the
Second World War we began to rely on
ploughing, the application of fertilisers
and pesticides to boost the food supply,
these being provided by the ever powerful
agro-chemical industries. They kept a
vice grip on information and research;
the universities and professors running
courses on soil science and agriculture
were funded by these companies. We
are only now beginning to appreciate
the consequences of this reliance on
chemicals: knocking out much of the
insect population and ‘weeds’ for example
has led to the rapid decline in song
birds over the last 30 years in Britain.
Like-wise the devastating dust bowls
in America in the 1930s were created
when native grasslands that previously
fed buffalo were ploughed for the first
time, meaning that there was no natural
Soil and microbes
protection for the exposed soil from
the wind. Less appreciated is our own
dependence on microbes both in our guts
and the soil for our own health; there is a
theory that the spate of illnesses currently
afflicting us and overpowering the NHS is
in part due to the poor health of our soil
and our ingesting agricultural chemicals,
albeit in miniscule quantities
There are two laboratories in Europe
specialising in analysing microbiological
activity in the soil which have been
established to inform farmers and
growers.
These sketches, made with one eye on the
microscope lens, brought home to me the
reality of the unseen world on which we
depend.
