Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Welcome!

Hello and welcome to Soil Blog UW! Growing up in the rolling hills of The Palouse, one of the most productive farming regions in the world, agriculture was something that surrounded me since birth. Through my high school and college years I have spent many summers working on a wheat and garbanzo farm outside of Pullman, WA. My experience on the farm in many ways has shaped my perspective on conservation issues. I gained a great appreciation for the necessity of large-scale agriculture for feeding the world, and for the incredibly difficult work that farmers do. I also became aware of the conundrum that exists in agriculture. We need farmers to achieve high crop yields to sustain human life, but many common agricultural practices (plowing, fertilizer and pesticide use, etc.) are not unsustainable and damage the very land that we rely on for food.

This blog focuses on the issue of soil erosion. I've created this blog as a way to educate the public on the effects of large-scale agriculture on soil quality worldwide. I will include information on the importance of soil, some of the agricultural practices used worldwide that cause soil erosion, as well as methods that can be used to better sustain soil quality on Earth. I hope that through the research I have compiled and a little bit of my own perspective I can change your thoughts on the importance of preserving soil quality worldwide!


From google images