plantyhamchuk:

plantyhamchuk:

Soil regions (USDA) – the far north is full of poor soils

I’m sharing this fantastic map to help people understand why global climate change isn’t going to suddenly open up great new lands near the arctic for farming. For some reason, this is a fairly common concept I’ve run across online, especially among optimistic individuals.

This is a simplified map of the USDA soil classification system. If you look to the northerly regions, you’ll note a lot of grey and turquoise. The gray is literally labeled as “rocky land”, and is totally unusable for farming. It is not arable. The light turquoise blue is “Gelisols”, these are permafrost soils, very thin, only one horizon layer. This is also way too thin to farm, and difficult to even build on – especially as the permafrost underneath the thin soil melts and refreezes. Gelisols are also very low in fertility.

The best farming lands is the light green stuff, the Mollisols. It is rich and deep and fertile and I might be slightly jealous of people who get to farm it (and yes I think it’s pretty wasteful to use most of it to grow animal feed and biofuels).

Some of the peaty lands, those little bits of dark red or Histosols, could potentially be used for animal husbandry but they’re better off left as peat lands. They are their own unique ecosystem(s), and humans have been rabidly destroying them for hundreds if not thousands of years. They take an extremely long time to form.

So no, Siberia is not going to suddenly warm up and create brand new delicious vistas for farming. The best soils on the planet will not be migrating. We’re better off trying to take care of the soils that we have now. Some methods to take care of them include no till and biodiverse cover cropping (a good PDF for those interested in learning more). 

Lots of farmers and gardeners till their lands. It is a very traditional way of doing things, but it actually slowly destroys the soil (it is okay to till your soil once to establish a bed, but repeated tilling will absolutely destroy your soil organic matter – the life of the soil – and also the soil texture). The USDA is basically pleading with people to stop tilling their soil. With an ever growing human population to feed, and the fact that we’re currently losing tons of topsoil every year due to soil mistreatment, it is imperative to help reach out to people who work with the land. Cover your soil! With mulch, with crops, with organic material. It’s the best way to preserve it, and even better, to rebuild it. 

Sharing this again in honor of World Soil Day!!