I think you and I see things very similarly.
What's sad is the issues a lot of us see - many do not - the problem is the issues we see will take many years if not decades to become apparent to the masses. In KS and I'm guessing TX, OK, NM and likely parts of SD and E Colorado (Dont know anything east or west of there and quite frankly no offense to anyone else I dont care - from your comments your habitat is already permanently ruined due to urbanization, loss of grasslands to trees in E Ks, MO, and the Eastern US - those places are a lost cause) -- anyways the point I'm getting at is soil health and water - Farmers are already sucking the Ogallala dry from TX to NE - the shallower parts already have run out of Water - (NM, TX, OK, Parts of KS) -- as this continues to happen it will create further problems - couple that with the constant application of fertilizers and poisons sold by the big ag companies we are heading for a natural disaster that will not be apparent until it's too late - like trying to turn a gargantuan container ship when you spotted an ice berg 100 yards out - you're not going to miss it and disaster will happen. I dont know what will be the tipping point - there's a few that get it - but very few do and I think very few actually care. Sadly this disaster will likely continue on it's course during our lifetimes and my childrens lifetimes and take many years after I'm long and turned to dust again to correct itself.
The farmers will likely be upset at my point of view - I dont care - they are entitled to theirs - I dont think they are bad people - just suckered into the lies the big ag companies tell them. These big conglomerates are doing the same things Tyson did to Chicken farmers - (read the book "The Meat Racket" for a good lesson).
Another rambling -- I finally bought 72 acres to go with my 6 I already had our house on next to where I live -mix of Ag, woods, creek bottom - I plan on building a house on part of it - had the whole property logged for walnuts/oaks and have completed some excavation with my tracked skid loader to level out where I want the home on the farmland - Also had a perk test completed for our septic system we need to put in. Here's my non farmer observation -- the soil is good dirt - stuff really grows in it - good black dirt deposited from the glaciers back in the day - Around my house no chemicals have been used for years - lots of leaf litter from trees (I've removed about 50-60 trees though around our home) but the soil is almost sponge like -- It is fricking full of nightcrawlers and earth worms, moles and likely teaming with bacteria -- I never have to water anything and the grass and weeds are super healthy -- You dig down and unless you hit clay the water drains after a time due to the natural tillering of the worms and root systems etc.
Now go out to the farm field - We filled each of the holes and hit hard pan pretty darn close to the surface as for many years it's been no tilled and sprayed with every version of weed and insect killer I can imagine -- completely devoid of life except henbit and some sort of invasive shit grass in the spring - nothing lives very log to establish a root system -- we had not had rain in 2 plus months I believe which is unusual for my area and those holes we dug for the perk test on our septic system didnt drain worth a crap -- I have to put in max amount of septic lines --- had the farming been done more responsibly and working with mother nature with better soil health or even if there was native grass there I'd imagine the perk would have been night/day different with healthy soil - I hypothesize the soil would have drained so much better --- I look forward to the day most of it is out of production or the new farmer that will take over can implement his practices to stop fighting mother nature so much. The income from the crop is so inconsequential I dont really care if it's farmed again.
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