Repost from https://www.organicconsumers.org/
March 14, 2018 by Alexis Baden-Mayer
You’ve heard it said before: No Farms, No Food.
But let’s not forget: No Soil, No Farms.
A few years ago, the United Nations warned that on average, the world has fewer than 60 growing seasons left. That grim statistic is based on how rapidly the world’s soils are be degraded, in large part due to poor management.
The situation looks bleak for our soils—and just as bad for our farmers. So bad, that experts compare the current situation to the 1980s when bankruptcies and foreclosures contributed to the loss of 296,360 farms.
These are disturbing trends. But it’s not too late to turn things around, assuming we take the necessary steps.
This year, Congress will pass the Farm Bill, legislation that determines how $90 billion per year is used to shape our food system.
Congress could continue with business as usual, directing funding to the wealthiest farmers growing genetically engineered pesticide-drenched industrial monocultures that tear up our best soil to produce crops that get burned in car engines, fed to animals in factory farms or processed into diabetes-inducing junk foods.
Or, this year, the Farm Bill could go in a new direction. That’s what Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) is proposing with his version of the Farm Bill, the Food & Farm Act.
No farms, no food
We should all be concerned about what Farm Aid calls the “Looming Crisis on American Farms.” Even the Wall Street Journal is ringing alarm bells, warning that “The Next American Farm Bust Is Upon Us.”
Compared with the 1980s farm crisis, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) chief economist Rob Johansson warned in his just-released 2018 forecast that “current levels of debt are approaching the levels we saw back in the 1980s.”
Read full blog here: https://www.organicconsumers.org/blog/food-farm-act-our-best-hope-healthy-food-farms-and-soil