A clump of healthy topsoil sits in stark contrast to a light-hued hilltop that has lost much of its carbon-rich topsoil. (Evan Thaler)
Excerpt from this story from Smithsonian:
Crops hunger for the carbon-packed composition of rich topsoil. They need the nutrients and water that it stores, unlike the compacted, infertile soils that decades of conventional farming create.
Scientists and farmers know that agricultural soil erosion has been a problem for decades, but quantifying soil loss from a hundred years of farming and across multiple states has proven difficult. Now a study led by geomorphologist Evan Thaler and published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in February attempts to answer the elusive question of how much topsoil has been eroded in the Corn Belt, which stretches roughly from Ohio to Nebraska and produces 75 percent of the nation’s corn. The study estimated that about 35 percent of the region has lost its topsoil completely, leaving carbon-poor lower soil layers to do the work of supporting crops. Having thick, healthy topsoil means plants can grow faster and healthier, increasing crop yields and keeping the field’s ecosystem running smoothly. Topsoil loss creates environmental problems, such as when eroded, nutrient-laden dirt degrades streams and rivers, and is estimated to cost the Midwest’s agricultural industry almost $3 billion annually.
“I think it’s probably an underestimate,” says Thaler, a graduate student at the University of Massachusetts–Amherst. “There are areas where there’s probably a centimeter of topsoil left.”
The evolution of farming equipment and practices have affected the magnitude of erosion in the U.S. for hundreds of years. Settlers began systemically clearing the Great Plains prairie in the early 1800s as the John Deere plow became a staple of conventional tilling, which is the practice of digging up the topsoil to plant seeds. Later, gas-powered tractors made ripping up fields even easier. Aggressive plowing and monoculture planting led to unprecedented topsoil loss during the Dust Bowl. In 1935, in the wake of staggering soil and economic loss, Congress created the Soil Conservation Service (now known as the National Resource Conservation Service) to encourage more sustainable farming. The organization encouraged no-till planting, which conserves topsoil by not churning it up as intensely as conventional tilling, and cover crops, which help hold soil in place and replenish its nutrients, in the mid- to late-1900s. Today, such sustainable practices are beginning to spread as awareness of soil spreads too, but fewer than a quarter of fields nationally are farmed with no-till practices. Soil erosion is a slow, hard-to-spot problem, and financial pressures can keep farmers working fields even if they suspect they shouldn’t.
A Denver Sheriff’s deputy, who belittled people that received Covid-19s vaccinations, died from complications of Covid-19 on Wednesday. Daniel “Duke” Trujillo (33) was a deputy sheriff for 7 years.
Trujillo had previously shared social media content that appeared to reject the COVID vaccine. A Facebook profile photo updated in early May said “I have an immune system,” a common refrain among those eschewing pandemic-era precautionary measures.
In late April, Trujillo’s profile picture bore a banner that read “I don’t care if you’ve had your vaccine.”
It’s not known how many people Trujillo infected as a result of his refusal to get vaccinated.
Trujillo will also be remembered for beating an inmate with nunchaku in 2016, a policy violation that earned him a 60-day suspension. According to The Denver Post, in 2017 “Deputy Daniel Trujillo, who was hired in 2014, was suspended without pay for 60 days after he violated the department’s use-of-force policy when he beat the inmate’s outstretched arms with nunchaku and also used the weapon to squeeze the inmate’s arms, according to his disciplinary letter, which was obtained by The Denver Post through an open records request.”
