![]() ![]() The Berns brothers saw this change first-hand. Nationwide, farmers planted cover crops on 15m acres, a 50% increase from five years earlier. ![]() Though still not widely adopted, cover crops are becoming more popular with farmers, too, particularly in the country’s corn belt. Forty per cent of US cropland is grown on no-till farms, up from 32% in 2012. The crops also kept nitrogen in the soil and reduced erosion.Īmid growing concerns about topsoil loss, no-till and cover crops are becoming more popular, according to the 2017 US Census of Agriculture. The rye and buckwheat, among other cover crops, provided more organic matter to the soil, further feeding microorganisms like bacteria and fungi. In the 1990s, they began planting cover crops between harvests. With increased organic matter, the Bernses grew more food using less water and fertilizer. “If you had a handful of soil, you’d have more organisms than people on earth,” says Rob Myers, a soil scientist at the University of Missouri. We hope you’ll consider making a contribution. If we hit our fundraising goal by 30 June, the six-month project will include dozens of articles, videos, opinion pieces and visual stories over the course of 2019. We will also examine the power of the $640bn chemical industry – which has a lobby that’s currently better funded than the NRA. #Farming usa 2 crops that die after winter series#This series will investigate the ways in which chemicals in our water, food and environment can impair growth, development and health, causing a toxic fallout that can include: cognitive and behavioural difficulties, obesity, diabetes, infertility and birth defects. The Guardian is asking our readers to help us raise $150,000 to increase our coverage of the toxic chemicals in our environment for the rest of 2019. Under the Trump administration there are signs it’s only getting worse. Of the more than 40,000 chemicals used in consumer products in the US, according to the EPA, less than 1% have been rigorously tested for human safety. The American public is routinely exposed to toxic chemicals that have long been banned in countries such as the UK, Germany and France. Welcome to Toxic America – a Guardian project which will explore the health implications of living in an environment that can expose all of us to chemical contamination on a daily basis through the air we breathe, the food we eat, the products we use and the water we drink. Carcinogenic chemicals in your furniture, and contaminated drinking water. The more organic matter, the more organisms the soil can support. Organic matter, a section of soil that contains decomposing plant or animal tissue, serves as a reservoir of nutrients that microbes can feast upon while they provide nitrogen to growing plants and sequester carbon. Once they stopped tilling, the Berns family saw organic matter in the soil increase, which can have the added benefit of making foods grown in the soil more nutritious. For every 1% increase of carbon, an acre of land can hold an additional 40,000 gallons of water. Their farm is in a particularly dry area of the country, and keeping moisture on their land is a top priority. He and his brother, Brian, began the practice of no-till on their 2,100-acre corn and soybean farm when they learned it could increase the carbon, nutrients and water available in the soil. “We never want to see our soil unless we go looking for it,” says Keith Berns, a Nebraska farmer whose land hasn’t seen a plow in three decades. But some farmers are attempting to buck the trend and save their lands along with their livelihoods. The modern combination of intensive tilling, lack of cover crops, synthetic fertilizers and pesticide use has left farmland stripped of the nutrients, minerals and microbes that support healthy plant life. ![]()
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