Page 46 - Grapevine July-Aug 2020

Around The Vineyard

the degraded state of soils and the impoverished
state of people living in different landscapes. He
observed how soil erosion contributed to under-
mining civilizations around the world, starting
with the earliest agricultural civilizations such as
Neolithic Europe, Classical Greece, the southern
United States Neolithic and more.

In a review of over 1,500 scientific studies, soil
erodes at the rate of one inch every twenty years.
At this rate, the soil of a large civilization outside
major river flood plains depletes in roughly 500 to
1,000 years. Dr. Montgomery described how flood
plains like the Tigris and Euphrates bring sediment
and silt, tires, school buses and whatever is coming
down the river. “These places can maintain bal-
ance, as what the plow takes away on average is
replenished by flooding. Nature is fixing the dam-
aged of the plow.”

His findings debunk the traditional theory of soil
erosion found in environment history textbooks,
that deforestation led to erosion, which under-
mined civilizations. “I found out it was the plow
that followed that did it. The villain of this tale is
tillage.”

He described soil as akin to a bank account,
whereby it is the natural capital that fi-nances civi-
lizations, as it’s used to grow food, wine and every-
thing else people grow from the ground.

According to Dr. Montgomery, the plow leads to
soil degradation because, by design, it inverts soil.
“It provides incredibly good weed control, which
is why it’s often used in organic systems. A plow
takes those nasty weeds upside down and makes
fertilizer out of them.”

In addition, tillage accelerates the breakdown of
the organic matter in the soil by stimu-lating micro-
bial activity. In effect, this draws down the batter-
ies of the soil by degrading its organic matter. Also,
tillage leaves the soil vulnerable to erosion until the
next crop. If this process goes on for long enough,
the soil’s organic matter can deteriorate to the
point of impacting the fertility of the land, nega-
tively affecting the health of the crop.

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