And Now to the Present

So here we are in the 21st century facing drought, global warming, and food shortages. Industrial agriculture has until now been successful in feeding the growing population but not without unintended consequences. Firstly, agra-business depends on liberal use of fertilizers to attain commercially viable crop yields. Many components of these fertilizers kill soil microbes which are necessary to break down organic compounds in the soil into forms that the plants can utilize. Ultimately, the very earth that the crops are grown on thus becomes infertile. This requires the continual use of further fertilization for the crops to effectively grow. Additionally, crops grown in the ground require prodigious amounts of water to be applied to the plants. Since the roots of these plants (paradoxically) need oxygen to enable photosynthesis to occur, the soil needs to be porous. Thus, a vast majority of the water used to irrigate the fields, percolates along with the fertilizers (and pesticides) into the ground water - thus contaminating our aquifers. We no longer see the effect of seasonal crops since worldwide production insures that we can get virtually any vegetable or fruit at any time of the year. Since this produce must be moved from the places of production to the ultimate destinations where it is sold, worldwide agra-business is greatly contributing to our carbon footprint and concomitantly - global warming. It doesn't take a genius to see that we are headed towards a perfect storm. Current research suggests that as of 2022 we are at the tipping point'l occur.

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