[greenie_beans]

glad we're working from the same figure now. 1mm per year is not insignificant, and soil is not a renewable resource... probably a fine amount of soil loss for a farmer's lifetime, but a land manager needs to think over centuries and not in profit cycles.

> and as Smil points out there are plenty of places where land being farmed industrially is gaining soil.

i would bet at least $100 this happens where they do cover crops and actually manage the soil as a resource to be preserved

[ch4s3]

Thats 1mm in the upper Midwest around the Great Lakes, wind is doubtless a factor. You can’t generalize to all industrial ag from a dozen sites in 3 geographically similar states.

[greenie_beans]

wind is definitely a factor, especially after you remove all the plant life through tillage and herbicide!

[ch4s3]

Right, but tillage is not a set in stone practice. The Nebraska Corn Board is now advocating no-til corn planting[1]. Apparently it's already dominant in Western Canada and more than half of Montana cropland is managed without tilling.

Herbicide is a whole different discussion and probably too deep a rabbit hole so far down thread.

[1] https://nebraskacorn.gov/cornstalk/corn101/what-is-no-till-f...

[greenie_beans]

agreed on no-till! seeing it at scale is promising

[ch4s3]

This is a large reason I see erosion as a non issue long term.