"I know where it ends."
August 18, 2024 3:01 PM Subscribe
"In the heart of the country, Great Plains farmers and ranchers produce a quarter of all U.S. crops and 40 percent of our beef. But they rely on a resource that has been slowly drying up, water."
'Depletion of major groundwater source threatens Great Plains farming' Jun 24, 2024. (PBS video/audio.)
"They had been on the road for six days, a clan of five bouncing along in a tired wagon, when Bam White woke to some bad news. One of his horses was dead. It was the nineteenth-century equivalent of a flat tire, except this was the winter of 1926." A NYT excerpt from 'The Worst Hard Time' by Timothy Egan. "Using seldom seen movie footage, previously unpublished photographs and the compelling interviews of 26 survivors of those hard times, The Dust Bowl is a story of heroic perseverance against enormous odds". Ken Burns, 'The Dust Bowl', A documentary.
"They had been on the road for six days, a clan of five bouncing along in a tired wagon, when Bam White woke to some bad news. One of his horses was dead. It was the nineteenth-century equivalent of a flat tire, except this was the winter of 1926." A NYT excerpt from 'The Worst Hard Time' by Timothy Egan. "Using seldom seen movie footage, previously unpublished photographs and the compelling interviews of 26 survivors of those hard times, The Dust Bowl is a story of heroic perseverance against enormous odds". Ken Burns, 'The Dust Bowl', A documentary.
@aeshnid your friendly metafilter farmer here, happy to answer questions. Many farmers are very well aware of climate change, fossil fuel usage, and the very likely possibility of their livelihood vanishing. It's hard to change the massive systems that led us here as an individual though.
Perhaps they should farm less water intensive crops on the great plains, you might think. But the land they are on is not well suited to growing just anything. They grow predominantly corn, soy and wheat because that's what grows well there. Plus that is what is primarily subsidized by The Farm Bill, a byzantine labryinth of grants, subisidies and entitlements exactly no politician wants to touch.
Perhaps they should abandon fossil fuels, you might suggest. And that IS a good idea in some cases. There are subsidies for farmers to install solar panels to power their wells, for example. However, there are not yet decent electric alternatives to big diesel tractors. People are trying, and I do hope to see them in my lifetime.
I did a quick spreadsheet calculation of how much more it would cost to use draft horses instead of a tractor on our farm, and as much as I love horses, no, it makes no financial sense whatsoever.
Why does everything need to be a financial decision, you might wistfully ponder. I sure do. Keep in mind most farmers are selling their crops at tiny profit margins while often carrying a lot of debt.
It's a hard way to make a living, but there is nothing I would rather do.
posted by birdsongster at 3:57 PM on August 18 [42 favorites]
Perhaps they should farm less water intensive crops on the great plains, you might think. But the land they are on is not well suited to growing just anything. They grow predominantly corn, soy and wheat because that's what grows well there. Plus that is what is primarily subsidized by The Farm Bill, a byzantine labryinth of grants, subisidies and entitlements exactly no politician wants to touch.
Perhaps they should abandon fossil fuels, you might suggest. And that IS a good idea in some cases. There are subsidies for farmers to install solar panels to power their wells, for example. However, there are not yet decent electric alternatives to big diesel tractors. People are trying, and I do hope to see them in my lifetime.
I did a quick spreadsheet calculation of how much more it would cost to use draft horses instead of a tractor on our farm, and as much as I love horses, no, it makes no financial sense whatsoever.
Why does everything need to be a financial decision, you might wistfully ponder. I sure do. Keep in mind most farmers are selling their crops at tiny profit margins while often carrying a lot of debt.
It's a hard way to make a living, but there is nothing I would rather do.
posted by birdsongster at 3:57 PM on August 18 [42 favorites]
Right, corn is a highly intensive crop, requiring huge inputs and having a huge impact on water and soil, relative to other crops available on the plains (even just wheat and soy are much better on overall impacts and carbon budget). And that's why we should stop subsidizing it so heavily, especially when the vast majority of it is cattle feed, what with beef having such enormous negative impacts on climate and environmental health, relative to other meats.
The whole practice of modern "conventional" corn/cattle agroecology is red as hell on the environmental ledger sheets, but most of the country would rather stick their head in the sand and eat a cheap burger.
There's lots of ways to get plenty of food out of the plains in a sustainable manner, but it's not a fair playing field by a long shot when the system is set up to favor this high intensity status quo.
It's hard to make a living as an ecologist too, when it's almost always in the interest of of capital to ignore all our warnings.
posted by SaltySalticid at 5:47 PM on August 18 [10 favorites]
The whole practice of modern "conventional" corn/cattle agroecology is red as hell on the environmental ledger sheets, but most of the country would rather stick their head in the sand and eat a cheap burger.
There's lots of ways to get plenty of food out of the plains in a sustainable manner, but it's not a fair playing field by a long shot when the system is set up to favor this high intensity status quo.
It's hard to make a living as an ecologist too, when it's almost always in the interest of of capital to ignore all our warnings.
posted by SaltySalticid at 5:47 PM on August 18 [10 favorites]
Highly recommend this book for an insider/outsider perspective: Running Out: In Search of Water on the High Plains:
The imminent depletion of the Ogallala and other aquifers around the world is a defining planetary crisis of our times. Running Out offers a uniquely personal account of aquifer depletion and the deeper layers through which it gains meaning and force.posted by spamandkimchi at 5:58 PM on August 18 [4 favorites]
Anthropologist Lucas Bessire journeyed back to western Kansas, where five generations of his family lived as irrigation farmers and ranchers, to try to make sense of this vital resource and its loss.
But the land they are on is not well suited to growing just anything.
Exactly. That's why the Great Plains were basically habitats to 30 million bison until we wiped them out because we needed to "civilize" the Native Americans.
As a species we figured out that pastoralism got calories out of grassland without significant inputs at least a few thousand years ago. Instead we flatten the place, mess with the climate, and brute force agrarianism out of those same lands by using ridiculous amounts of non-renewable fossil water.
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 5:56 AM on August 19 [8 favorites]
Exactly. That's why the Great Plains were basically habitats to 30 million bison until we wiped them out because we needed to "civilize" the Native Americans.
As a species we figured out that pastoralism got calories out of grassland without significant inputs at least a few thousand years ago. Instead we flatten the place, mess with the climate, and brute force agrarianism out of those same lands by using ridiculous amounts of non-renewable fossil water.
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 5:56 AM on August 19 [8 favorites]
I'm just an urban gardener, but I just picked up a book by a Kansas farmer called "Restoring Your Soil” (no link, I'm camping) He talks extensively about the impact of agriculture practices on climate change, drought-flood patterns, ways to improve soil water retention in his red clay soil and perhaps even ways to increase rainfall by planting cover crops. I didn't know that tilling makes things worse in the long-term and releases CO2. Nor that widespread fallowing may increase drought. Fascinating, highly recommend.
posted by kitcat at 8:59 AM on August 19 [5 favorites]
posted by kitcat at 8:59 AM on August 19 [5 favorites]
Water is just way too fast with all the crap we've done to the environment. Normally drainage would be over undulations in the ground acting as little pores for water to sit in while it percolates, into a creek that would meander, run into beaver dams, forests, wetlands which slow it all down and further increase the percolation rate.
Nowadays it just flows over cleared flat farmlands into drainage ditches with wetlands and forests cleared and beavers driven out of the area. Gets it into the river at warp speed. Along with all the runoff of shit that was used by the farmer to grow the crops.
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 9:13 AM on August 19 [2 favorites]
Nowadays it just flows over cleared flat farmlands into drainage ditches with wetlands and forests cleared and beavers driven out of the area. Gets it into the river at warp speed. Along with all the runoff of shit that was used by the farmer to grow the crops.
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 9:13 AM on August 19 [2 favorites]
On the "there are no alternatives to fossil fuel farm vehicles" topic - I have family members who work as engineers for Cummins (GIANT diesel manufacturer), and the company has committed to changing over to EVs, which was very surprising to me.
posted by youthenrage at 12:16 PM on August 19 [2 favorites]
posted by youthenrage at 12:16 PM on August 19 [2 favorites]
comment flagged for fantastic, birdsongster.
posted by clavdivs at 12:34 PM on August 19 [1 favorite]
posted by clavdivs at 12:34 PM on August 19 [1 favorite]
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posted by aeshnid at 3:33 PM on August 18 [3 favorites]