“Soil health is vital to the operation of any small farm. Soil is the most basic component a farmer works with, and thus every farmer must have a working knowledge of soil function and needs.
Topsoil, the uppermost layer of the Earth’s crust, the A Horizon, is the most crucial component of any farm. Topsoil is an exhaustible resource, and it can be lost by erosion or abused to the point of sterility. Topsoil is a living medium, not an inert one. It requires care just like any other organism that we humans have a mutual relationship with.
There is an end to the amount of topsoil we as a species have available to us, and with current standard farming practices, we will reach that end very soon. The first white colonizers of the Midwest region found a topsoil layer 3 feet thick, where today it is only 6 inches. Unless we all change our ways, and soon, we are in for a very barren and dusty future.”
