Kushi Institute Online Store OPW Donations Links Modern chemical farming has resulted in tragic consequences to the land and natural environment. From an average depth of 36 inches in pioneer times, America's topsoil has declined to about 6 inches in depth today. Meanwhile, as a result of hybridization, crop strains have grown weaker.
Today there are hundreds of species that are resistant to pesticides, herbicides, and other sprays.
The remaining seeds face rapid extinction from new corporate patent laws favoring hybrid and genetically altered seeds. As a result of modern agricultural practices, the United Nations has estimated that one-third of the world's remaining arable land will be lost to desertification in the next quarter century. Two-thirds of the pesticides highlighted in Rachel Carson's 1962 classic, Silent Spring, are still being manufactured and used around the world. Modern patterns of food consumption have also had a tremendously negative impact on wilderness lands, deserts, and other ecosystems. One-third of the world's differ ent species of plants and animals are located in these regions and face extinction as a result of modern development.