Thursday, September 11, 2008

There's Money In Dirt


“There’s a growing shortage of quality topsoil around the world. Quality soil is loose, clumpy, filled with air pockets and teeming with life. It's a complex microecosystem all its own. On average, the planet has little more than 3 feet of topsoil spread over its surface.
“The problem is that we're losing it faster than we can replace it. We lose topsoil to development, erosion and desertification. In the U.S., the National Academy of Sciences says we're losing it 10 times faster than it's being replaced. The U.N. says that on a global basis, the rate of loss is 10-100 times faster than that of replacement.
“And replacing it isn't easy. It grows back an inch or two over hundreds of years. Fertile soil -- good dirt -- may become more important to land values than oil or minerals in the ground.”

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