Read the full story at Agri-Pulse.
The recent blinding dust storm that caused fatal highway crashes in central Illinois where Interstate 55 passes through flat farmland was a result of an unusually dry April.
Windy weather arrived during the period when many farm fields were being plowed in preparation for spring planting — as farmers have done for years or even generations. But these dry, bare fields left the soil unprotected, ready to be swept up by the wind.
Soil is a finite resource — the foundation of our food supply and habitat for about a quarter of the world’s biodiversity. Soil is one of the earth’s greatest carbon-capturing systems. When it blows away with the wind, it’s always a tragic loss — even when it doesn’t cause fatal car crashes.
Many people were quick to blame the plowing of farm fields as the main cause of this calamity. But the reality is far more complicated.
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