> On local ecologies the result of disturbances are real, visible, and
>somewhat known. Chemical assults on the soil have reduced the natural
>fertility. While plants cannot tell the difference from nitrogen supplied by
>ammonium nitrate, the microherd certainly can tell. They die.
snip
>The microherd dies in great numbers, ceasing their contributions of
>services to the ecology. They are in large part the digestive system of
>earthworms (who have no teeth), which then die off. When the earthworms are
>dead, they no longer make their contributions to the ecology.
I live next to the county with the highest pesticide application by weight
per acre in California. Much of this is methyl bromide--a toxic by-product
of the gasoline industry used to kill the microherd and earthworms. I work
daily to end its use and cannot imagine how people have become so removed
from the soil that they wish to kill everything in it before planting. The
*farmers* are actually mostly corporations leasing the land, with no
concern for today's air quality or tomorrow's soil conditions.
Already I have noticed water standing on the fields for days after a
rain--no earthworm paths to drain the water downward. Tremendous soil
erosion on the hilly strawberry farms, as nothing in the soil holds it in
place any longer.
Lion, your writing brought tears to me. Keep up your vivid and critical
descriptions of what is happening to us.
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