When you gamble with Mother Nature you are betting with the most ruthless opponent in existence. In the 1930's our current food supply would have required 31 million farm worker to get the job done. In a 19-year Australian study, a conventionally tilled area was compared to a conservation tillage area. The high tillage fields lost soil to erosion at a rate 31 times of the conservation tillage area.
Residue reduces soil erosion and the amount of fertilizer required to produce the next crop.
Today, farmers are practicing reduce tillage on 100 million acres to improve soil quality and reduce erosion. Well, that's a 16,000 gallons reduction in water requirements for each acre. It only takes 20,00 gallons of water to produce 1 bushel of wheat and that can make 73 one pound loaves of bread.