Forces Driving More
on what the land could provide, but rather on the profits to be earned
after it was converted into streets and building sites.
When he sold the land, my father didn’t anticipate a future sub-
division, and street access was limited. Undeterred, the new buyers
took my mother to court, where a judge ordered additional land be
surrendered for roads. Because it was just farmland, compensation was
set at one dollar.
People commonly refer to land as “dirt” before spending small fortunes
to cover it over with everything from asphalt to ornamental plants.
Dirt is what irritates eyes on windy days, sticks to clothes, muddies
cars after rain showers, turns pristine streams brown. Dirt often seems
like an annoyance, with little redemptive value.
Yet dirt is Earth’s protective skin.^ Teeming with microscopic orga-
nisms, dirt is the membrane between a geological world of inert rocks
and minerals, and a biological world chock-full of life. Dirt plus life
becomes soil. Within a handful of rich soil are billions of living crea-
tures busily breaking down minerals in rocks and decomposing organic
matter. Without any fanfare, soil supplies plants with nutrients, fil-
ters away impurities to provide clean water, sequesters carbon, and
remediates waste and pollution.
The United States has some ,000 different soil types.^ The best
for growing food is a mix of silt, clay, and sand, which offers excellent
drainage, circulation of air, and access to nutrients. To locate such
soil, simply follow the ancient glaciers that started in the Arctic and
descended through Canada. What they left in their wake became the
better portion of the Great Plains as well as parts of the Southeast and
Northwest.
These vintage soils were protected by perennial grasses. Roots
extending three to seventeen feet belowground, along with flat gra-
dients or gently rolling hills, minimized erosion from wind and rain.^
Meanwhile, deep underground, weathering rocks were releasing min-
erals and new soil was forming. As time went by, a natural balance
evolved between loss from erosion and new formation.
Early settlers venturing across vast expanses of grass-covered plains
had no idea that America was home to some of the world’s finest soils.