catapult magazine

i’m reading philip yancey’s Soul Survivor: How my faith survived the Church, in which he profiles the people who shaped his faith. in the chapter about gandhi, he mentions gandhi’s reservations about modern technology, especially high-technology farming. as an example, yancey says that iowa has lost more of its topsoil in 150 years than india has lost in five thousand years.

any thoughts?

hey rob,

I would guess that the majority of sowing and reaping in India still is done by hand, which would disturb the soil very little, whereas in Iowa, where the mojority of sowing and reaping is done by tractor, the soil is very much disturbed, kicked up into the air and blown away. Another factor, I think, is that basically the entire state of Iowa has been leveled, razed and cultivated, leaving very few trees or other soil binders or wind breaks, which makes the soil even more vulnerable to erosion and loss. The long grasses that used to populate the area are all gone. Just some thoughts. Probably about half true.

Dude, I just posted on the “Agriculture” discussion. Now we just have to do something with Biology and Engineering…

Dude, I just posted on the “Agriculture” discussion. Now we just have to do something with Biology and Engineering…