A bit of good news: farmers are facing up to water shortages by adopting 'no-till' methods that reduce the need for irrigation. I'm glad to hear it. Living within our (environmental) means isn't as scary as people might think.
A bit of good news: farmers are facing up to water shortages by adopting 'no-till' methods that reduce the need for irrigation. I'm glad to hear it. Living within our (environmental) means isn't as scary as people might think.
My father has been using this method in Christmas tree planting for years - the old stumps rotting away into the soil seem to be good for the new crops.
With all the flooding we've had?
Minimum-till has been coming on for a decade and more now. Not just because of the North Atlantic Occilation being felt.
No-till requires the greatly increased use of, guess what - herbicides and pesticides.
You can either do a lot of tillage, and follow "organic" practices, or you can do minimum and no-till and use -lots- of chemicals.
I wouldn't say that "living within our means" applies to fresh water. Theoretically, there's a finite supply, but there's more in North America than we know what to do with.
A finite supply? The Earth's surface is 3/4 oceans!
Oceans != fresh water