In article ,
Bill who putters wrote:

In article ,
Doug Freyburger wrote:

Billy wrote:

Natural ecosystems and organic farmers are the only creators of topsoil
today.

While true in general I wonder if there are exceptions here and there
that are of interest.

There's a wildlife preserve in the Netherlands that forms a natural
European grassland with herds of wild undulates and some natural
predators. The idea is humans tend to view forest as the natural state
of Europe without humans but how did the herding grass eaters like cows
and horses evolve in a forest? It's a grassland that's not really
natural but more of a deliberate immitation of natural.

Much of the previous discussion has been about ways to conduct small
farming to build topsoil, but only in a specific geography. At first I
easily imagined morphing the concepts regionally to acheive making
topsoil in other regions with adapted methods.

Now I have started to wonder how herd management might be conducted so
it grows topsoil instead of depleting it. Buffalo herds were a part of
the North American grasslands and soil building in grasslands was
discussed. Current herding methods deplete soil - How to change that so
they build soil?

I recall the soil being pretty good in the small farm oriented dairyland
where most of my relatives lived when I was a kid. Small herds of dairy
cattle, crop rotation including legumes, some farms growing feed for the
farms with the bigger herds. I wonder how such a model can be mapped to
beef herding. What comes to my mind is - grass fed beef rather than lot
fed beef, mixed with a smaller heard strategy where the feed is closer
to local than it is with modern large beef cattle herds.

Cover crop history.

http://www.google.com/search?q=cover...phic&ie=utf-8&
oe=utf-8#q=cover+crop+history+graphic&hl=en&tbs=tl:1&tbo= u&ei=8V99TIaiJ8G
88gb1lKCcBg&sa=X&oi=timeline_result&ct=title&resnu m=11&ved=0CEIQ5wIwCg&fp
=7db4f7af4a13aa89

I'll look at this soon, when I have more time.
or http://tinyurl.com/2aeov7u


Looks like we may be getting smarter now if only the department of
defence owned up to being the department of war.
"While President Obama is claiming the war is ending, the US still
maintains a large presence in Iraq. Fifty thousand US troops remain in
Iraq to help with training and logistics. In addition, the US is keeping
4,500 special operations forces in Iraq to carry out counterterrroism
operations. Tens of thousands of private contractors will also remain in
the country."

"White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs has said President Obama may
also talk tonight about how the the US is expanding the war against
al-Qaeda by carrying out strikes in Africa and other areas beyond the
battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq."

Robert Gibbs: "I think you have seen a commitment to taking our fight
directly to the leadership throughout the world, all over the world, in
different places, be it in and around Africa, be it in Southeast Asia. I
think the President made a commitment to increase the tempo of that
fight, and that¹s exactly what he¹s done."
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/8/31/headlines#1

So while the Iraqi War winds down, we will be ramping up the Obama/Bush
wars in Africa and in Southeast Asia. Even if they have democratically
elected governments.

I would have sworn that "peace" looked different than this.
--
- Billy
"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the
merger of state and corporate power." - Benito Mussolini.
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/7/2/maude
http://english.aljazeera.net/video/m...515308172.html