Soil Quality, Conservation and Food Production

In this University of Wisconsin-Madison, experts from various institutes around the nation come together to discuss the issues surrounding soil quality and farming. What does tilling have to do with the those starving in Africa? What will happen as the demand for food requires a doubling of food produced in the next century? How will expanding farmland affect other animals and ecosystems? The world is already using all of its good farmland, what can be done to improve food production without causing detrimental side effects? This video outlines various issues that may educate viewers about the importance of maintaining good soil quality and the various techniques to preserve topsoil and the impact soil quality has on food production.

Category:

Education

[haikuoflife]

GM food may be good for business, but is it good for our bodies?

[Mrreserveatim]

War is a problem to few positions leadership, no defined political agendas ans parties to represent fairly and justly the rights to address the needs of the majority, foreign businesses interference to control resources care not the families will suffer remain poor.SUGGEST BUILD MULTI LEVEL GREENHOUSES MAXIMIZE WATER USE, BUILD DOWN USE SOIL AS INSULATED HOMES, PRAY FOR ALL NOT 10% BUT 100% TO LIVE WELL TOGETHER.Sadly own rez lost in greed 4$& falsehoods better than

[tokyoserver]

Cross pollinisation is the polution for other varietal!

That is why France Agri dont want it! Use Kokopelli seeds

[tigerone1970]

"All the world's farmland is already in use."

That is a BS lie. In Zambia (and many African countries), only 20% of all arable land is already in use. Only 3% is under permanent irrigation.

There is so much land that should be used for farming in Africa that is not being used it's ridiculous. The images of the Ethiopian famine have to do with *war*, not lack of land.

The makers of this video have an agenda, and they are using racist ideas to promote it.

[tigerone1970]

The solution is simple. Give people more land, create a class of commercial organic farmers which uses basic machinery.

If all farmers had 100 hectares of land to their disposal, there would be no poverty in Africa, and no famines. Africa would once again export food.

And hydrology is extremely important. Store water on the land and in the soil, so it is available for year around agriculture, instead of having to depend on rainfall.

[tigerone1970]

Actually this video presents a very racist image of African agriculture.

People aren't 'hacking away with a handheld hoe' because they don't have 'better ideas'.

They have very little land (2-3 hectares), because they are restricted to reservations. Because they barely grow enough to feed themselves and have no rights to their land, they cannot buy machinery. Which they don't need, because they only have 2-3 hectares of land to work.

It is a cycle of poverty, not a 'lack of ideas'.

[tigerone1970]

'The food situation is bad' because farmers have no land and no capital.

Worse is that that the IMF tells governments not to invest in agriculture, and do import food.

There is no overpopulation in Africa, and there is no shortage of land to cultivate. But the land is kept out of the hands of African farmers (no title deeds that protect against eviction, people living on reservations).

There is a lot of racism left over from when Africans competed with white farmers.

[john3427]

A propaganda video promoting GM crops based in faulty reasoning and wrong statements. As qwbufp says, watch "We feed the world" on google video. Very interesting. We produce enough today to feed 12 billion people! The problem is not one of consumption, is one of distribution! Brazil produces a surplus and exports a lot of food, yet many people in Brazil go do be hungry every day. Why? GM wouldn't solve that!

[pgeeme]

No! to GM crops