Depleted soil leads to reduced yields, forcing farmers to rely on fertilizers that raise food production costs, consumer prices.

Summary

Grocery prices are expected to rise globally as soil degradation, driven by overfarming, deforestation, and climate change, reduces farmland productivity.

The UN estimates 33% of the world’s soils are degraded, with 90% at risk by 2050. Poor soil forces farmers to use costly fertilizers or abandon fields, raising prices for staples like bread, vegetables, and meat.

Experts advocate for sustainable practices like regenerative agriculture, cover cropping, and reduced tillage to restore soil health.

Innovations and government subsidies could mitigate impacts, but immediate action is critical to ensure food security.

    • scarabic@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      4 months ago

      Soil depletion killed the Sumerians. It’s older than billionaires. If we attribute every single problem to class inequality, eventually we’re going to be wrong, because there are other problems in the world. If you think billionaires have power over us, nature is vastly more powerful.

  • finitebanjo@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    4 months ago

    Not many people have mentioned this so I guess I’ll bring it up:

    The two major factors negatively impacting sustainability of agriculture are

    • Ammonia (NH3) is mined as a way to enrich agriculture with Protein, more specifically the ammonia bonds with nitrogen allowing plant development, but it’s not exactly infinite. Synthetic Ammonia can be produced but is extremely emission heavy as it is often a petrochemical byproduct with the vast majority of Hydrogen (H) is produced from fossil fuels refining.

    • Modern Invasive Pests/Disease are commonly spread across continents. Lack of plant biodiversity leads to viral outbreaks called “blights” which can lower or even wipe out entire regions of crops. Invasive species most notably insects can plague regions for years without any natural predators. Globalization and Industrialization have created these hurdles, but the yield of such practices are absolutely necessary to feed the current human population.

    There are no solutions except reducing the human population. Which isn’t going to happen, because people are stupid animals and the people we’ve empowered all over the world are morons who cannot read the writing on the wall.

    • LustyArgonian@lemmy.worldEnglish
      01·
      4 months ago

      This isn’t even true. The carrying capacity of earth for people hasn’t been met. We can absolutely engineer things to be both sustainable and livable at current populations. Rhetoric that advises we “depopulate” is borderline neo-fascism, the same stuff Christians say to bring on the apocalypse.

      James Cassidy at Oregon State University has his SOIL lecture series on YouTube. We have many ways to repair our soil and to improve farming. Killing people/ “depopulating” isn’t one of them. Shame on you.

  • The_v@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    4 months ago

    The best thing for the environment and soil health is to not farm it. There is no such thing as environmentally friendly agriculture. It is always destructive.

    We farm the land we do because it’s profitable.

    Irrigated acres make up less than 7% of the land area used for agriculture but produce 65% of the total yield.

    Protected culture (greenhouses, high tunnels, etc) produce 10x to 20x more per acre than open field production.

    Increasing our water storage and transport infrastructure on a massive scale, combined with expansion of protected culture could reduce our agricultural land requirements by as much as 80%. All wiithout changing our diets.

    Imagine 80% of the farmland rewilded? Massive stretches of native ecosystems rebounding without fertilizer or sprays.

    • TheFriar@lemm.eeEnglish
      0·
      4 months ago

      There are ways to create sustainable farms. It’s about diversity of crops and cycling what crops are grown each year.

      https://www.edibleforestgardens.com/

      There is no environmentally friendly factory farming. There is no healthy market-conscious farming. There are absolutely ways to be kind to the earth and grow food for a small community.

      • The_v@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        4 months ago

        We need food for billions not a small community.

        Food forest = lower environmental impact per acre but a higher environmental cost per kg of production. It’s also highly environmentally irresponsible to add in invasive species, disease, and pests into and established ecosystem. These are all spread by seed, soil, and plant tissue of the crops we grow.

        • TheFriar@lemm.eeEnglish
          0·
          4 months ago

          But…billions make up many small communities. That’s my point. Self-reliance, mutual aid. That’s the answer. Not globalized solutions.

          • michaelmrose@lemmy.worldEnglish
            0·
            4 months ago

            99% of us do non ag jobs and if we moved to everyone trying to farm a billion would starve and the worlds economy would implode.

            Lack of resources would lead to both local and global violence as desperate people hurt each other.

            Imagine a city of a million people abandoning all the work they do to all collectively invade rural areas to set up farms they have no idea how to run!

            • zalgotext@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
              1·
              4 months ago

              You’re taking the proposed solution to an extreme end of the spectrum in an effort to argue against it.

              We don’t need all ~7 billion of us to become self sufficient farmers. We don’t even need 1 billion of us to become farmers.

              What we need in the immediate short term is to encourage the adoption of better agricultural practices, such that the mega farms that currently support us can continue to support us, while minimizing their environmental* impact.

              What we need in the medium term is to encourage people to create local food gardens in their communities, via education campaigns and subsidies. By no means does that mean every living being on the planet needs to take up a trowel and a hoe, but people should be encouraged to participate in the production of their own food.

              What we need in the long term is to find solutions that turn those local food gardens into permanent, sustainable, long term solutions that can support entire communities. Vertical farming, indoor hydroponics, stuff like that. Which means publicly funded research and more subsidies.

              There’s steps to it. It’s a process. It will take time, it won’t happen overnight. No one is suggesting that “a city of a million people abandon all the work they do and collectively invade rural areas to set up farms they have no idea how to run”. That’s a strawman you’ve made up in your head.

  • Caboose12000@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    4 months ago

    I’m gonna fucking uninstall this app I’m having a nervous breakdown fuck off i just want some memes not existential fucking dread GAAAAHHHH

    • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      4 months ago

      tell me about it, dude.

      We’re on the precipice of total collapse. Farmlands failing, Ocean Currents are collapsing, Climate change is accelerating, Intellectuals are being demonized in favor of ignorance and fascism… The possibility of WW3 hanging over us thanks to all of the previous.

      the next 20 years are going to be the cursed time that “may you live in interesting times” was talking about.