https://civileats.com/2022/01/06/dust-growing-problem-farmland-pollution-soil-cover-crops-tillage/ Daily News and Commentary About the American Food System Fri, 16 Dec 2022 17:40:18 +0000 hourly 1 https://civileats.com/2022/01/06/dust-growing-problem-farmland-pollution-soil-cover-crops-tillage/#comment-251871 Wed, 26 Jan 2022 15:58:47 +0000 https://civileats.com/?p=45130#comment-251871 It would be more correct to identify the farmland portion of Central Arizona as the Sonoran Desert rather than the Chihuahuan. I live in Pinal County, the cradle of most of the “haboobs” that come with our Summer monsoons. Almost all of our land is in agriculture, much more of which will now be required to go fallow due to Colorado river cutbacks from drought. We thus expect the dust issue to get much worse.

]]> https://civileats.com/2022/01/06/dust-growing-problem-farmland-pollution-soil-cover-crops-tillage/#comment-247796 Thu, 13 Jan 2022 21:39:26 +0000 https://civileats.com/?p=45130#comment-247796 I was reading your article published on Civil Eats. We recently had a dust storm that blocked the tower views of our towns. You couldn’t see Sublette, Kansas, from any camera view. Couldn’t see the cars in front of you or the buildings beside you. I work for the Haskell County Conservation District in Sublette, Kansas,. We are very concerned about our air quality. Would you be interested in sending us some of your products so that we can start monitoring the air around us before, during and after these lovely storms? We also have five feedlots within our county. Would your product help monitor the particles in the air from these places?

]]> https://civileats.com/2022/01/06/dust-growing-problem-farmland-pollution-soil-cover-crops-tillage/#comment-247609 Wed, 12 Jan 2022 17:43:05 +0000 https://civileats.com/?p=45130#comment-247609 In the 1990’s I saw the impact of increasing dust storms in China. It is generally due to depleted soils that are inherently low in soil organic carbon. Soil reclamation is the solution.

]]> https://civileats.com/2022/01/06/dust-growing-problem-farmland-pollution-soil-cover-crops-tillage/#comment-246812 Thu, 06 Jan 2022 18:55:00 +0000 https://civileats.com/?p=45130#comment-246812 I live in a small farming community in Northwest Pennsylvania.
I casually mentioned to one of our local farmers that he was losing all of his topsoil because the people leasing his land were plowing up the fields on windy days. I was told to mind my own business. I have photos of the huge amounts of dust generated on just a small farm. No one seems to care, not even the local municipality. That dust holds the chemicals that the farmers are using on the land. There is a lot of cancer in my neighborhood.
PennDot also creates huge amounts of dust. I have complained all the way up the chain with no one caring. Apparently, children and adults getting sick from this stuff is all OK, because no one in authority wants to be bothered to do their job of protecting the health and welfare of the people of PA.

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