Part two: what’s in it for the planet?

Turning soil to dust. It comes down to over processing. We know it’s bad for our food. Turns out it’s really bad for soil as well. Break down the diversity, release water and carbon, kill the biome and lovely rich and moist soil turns to dust. Plants don’t thrive in dust, they don’t even grow in dust. Just add some fertilizer you might think… not that simple. Here’s why…

This actually can cause deserts. It is happening across the planet. But only when we create too much bar ground through farming, both plants and animals. Forests minimize evaporation and increase humidity leading to more rain. 40% of our rainfall comes from inland (like in the Portland area) desertification damages these inland water cycles. This impacts temperatures.

We are a big population, we need a lot of farm land in order to support the food needs of the millions of people on this plate. Now, we are looking at two thirds of the planet turning to desert. This puts farmers out of work, often rendering land that has been in their families for generations, no longer being farm worthy.

When people are displaced by desertification we see people forced to immigrate, become refugees. Desertification also causes more floods, draughts, more poor land, more poor people, even social breakdown. We are undermining the very ecology that we depend on. We are shooting ourselves right in the foot. And we are doing it quickly. We have 50-60 harvest years left before our top soil is totally toast.

For more on Kiss the Ground, check out their website here and stay tuned for more in our four part series.