Doug Allen

 
Doug Allen gave a thought provoking  talk about No Till Cultivation. One never thinks much about where our food comes from our how it was grown.  
 
Doug AllenMyself, I was quite intrigued, sometimes you get a wakeup call to what is happening in the world around you. I never gave a thought to farming before the talk and it opened my eyes enough to do some checking out on the subject.
There are pros and cons to the method and the main concern seems to be the use of herbicides to clear the previous crop and to control the weeds and bugs.
In the near future, however, the necessity of having a successful crop every year just to keep the bank at bay is probably going to keep most no-till practitioners from trying any risky experiments. And in the meantime, no-till agriculture offers far more protection of our precious topsoil than the plow does. How soon the conversion to natural practices can be made is a difficult question. Chemical companies have a tremendous vested interest in seeing today's approach remain in place, and powerful vested interests seem to determine our nation's agricultural policies. If the conversion is to be made, it will probably have to develop from the soil upward.