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From what I have read "no-dig" is the home garden adaptation of the commercial "no-till" method of farming. No-till was introduced in the 1950's as a fast, consequently lower cost, alternative to ploughing. It's entire existence as a method is due to economics, viewing soil as a commodity to be utilised, ignoring better husbandry techniques in the pursuit of an industralised approach to food production. While no form of cultivation is perfect no-till is certainly more detrimental to sustainable food production than ploughing. It is viewed by organic certifying bodies over here to be so detrimental to sustainable production, which is now the goal of certified organic protocols, that is a prohibited, as opposed to approved or restricted, practice. No-dig/no-till methods actually encourage leaching of nutrients and subsequent ground water contamination in all but semi-arid or desert climates. This is due to the long term establishment of vertical channels in the soil that allow the unchecked flow of water downwards, taking any dissolved compounds with it. The addition of a winter mulch, probably disingenuously to some, will make the problem worse as it will absorb excessive rainfall, rather than permit surface run-off into discreet channels, and allow these large quantities of water to penetrate the entire soil profile in amounts sufficent to promote more leaching. A more throrough analysis of this can be found at: http://ewr.cee.vt.edu/environmental/teach/gwprimer/group06/impact.htm and at: http://ewr.cee.vt.edu/environmental/teach/gwprimer/group06/corn.htmPresently no-till is widely used throughout the "bread-basket", the great plains, of the U.S. to produce corn, soybeans (both are mostly used for animal feeds) and wheat. It's speed allows solo farmers to cultivate far larger acreages than even a farmer with one or two employees can manage using more traditional cultivation techniques. As has been noted it is very dependent upon petro-chemical compounds and, as has also been noted, large quantities are used. It is indicative of the unsustainability of this practice that the quantities of these compounds used in U.S. agriculture doubled every ten years between 1945, coinciding approxomaitely with the widespread adaption of petro chemicals into farming, and 1995, when genetically modified plants were introduced (and resulted in a reduction in agro-chemical use). However, during these four decades, yields per acre remained essentially the same, even with the introduction of F1hybrids, with their increased vigour and yield, in the 1950's.
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Topic: dig or no dig (Read 26340 times)
