organic techniques (assuming similar nonmeat diets). In
addition, chemical techniques deplete the soil’s capacity
to produce. Wilson Clark, in the January 1975 issue of
Smithsonian, noted: “Even though more corn was
produced per acre in 1968 than in the 1940s, the
eMciency with which crops used available [nitrogen]
fertilizer actually declined fivefold.”
Biointensive techniques are being used to improve people’s diets in over 142
countries around the world.Chemical agriculture requires ever-increasing amounts
of fertilizer at an increasing cost as petroleum supplies
dwindle. The use of chemical fertilizers depletes
bene5cial microbial life, breaks down soil structure, and
adds to soil salinity. Impoverished soil makes crops more
vulnerable to disease and insect attack and requires
increasing amounts of pesticides to sustain production.
“A modern agriculture, racing one step ahead of the
apocalypse, is not ecologically sane, no matter how
productive, eMcient, or economically sound it may
seem” (John Todd, in The New Alchemy Institute
Bulletin, No. 2). Biointensive agriculture can sustain
yields because it puts back into the soil those elements
needed to sustain fertility. A small-scale personal
agriculture recycles the nutrients and humus so
important to the microbial life-forms that 5x
atmospheric nitrogen and produce disease-preventing
antibiotics.