But every inch of good topsoil the thin surface layer of nutritionally rich soil takes 500 to 1,000 years to create. They feed on plant debris, they break it down by digestion, and they decay, merging their bodies into the nutrient mix. We are losing topsoil seventeen times faster than nature can create it. Industrial agriculture is the problem. Pesticides are supposed to destroy undesirable bugs, but this is far from a precise process.
Pesticides kill all life in the soil.
Industrial farmers then need to use chemical fertilizers to replace the lost nutrients. This further depletes the soil, and shatters its ability to hold water. Rainfall soon washes it away. 100 million acres of U.S. cropland have thus been degraded by soil erosion. This cannot go on.