NOT PAYING BACK

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21173, 24 July 1940, Page 10

NOT PAYING BACK

BORROWING FROM SOIL i EFFECT ON PUBLIC HEALTH “For a long time,” said LordNorthbourne during his latest address to the Economic Reform Club in London a few weeks ago, “the practical agricultural ideal has been tc cheapen production by means of machinery and artificial fertilisers,” says a statement by the Physical and Mental Welfare Society. “Production has accordingly been cheapened at the expense of the soil. Food at a price which has actually been below the true cost of such production. This process has been carried on by a system of borrowing from the soil —by a system of that kind of borrowing which does not pay back! Agriculture has contracted a biological debt, an irreparable debt. “All over the world,” proclaimed Lord Northbourne, “agriculture is borrowing from the soil—living on Life’s only capital. The most obvious result of this mistaken policy is a phenomenon which is creating a certain amount of public interest (but not much public action), the phenomenon of soil-erosion. America’s Loss “America has lost one-third of her soil and is continuing to lose it at an increasing rate each year. The rate of erosion in Australia and Africa may be even greater.” (It may be mentioned at this point that soilerosion in New Zealand is responsible for an annual loss, approximately, of: Phosphates, 150,000 tons; potassium, 350,000 tons; calcium, 640,000 tons; sulphur, 132,000 tons; in addition to 2,200,000 tons of organic matter of various kinds.) “Although these figures in regard to erosion are so terrifying,” continued Lord Northbourne, “they merely describe the final stages of a condition in which almost the whole of the land of the globe is involved, in progressive deterioration and loss of fertility. I have not the slightest doubt that the world is heading, at an incredibly rapid rate, towards biological exhaustion, whose progress directly affects the health of man, animal and plant. Mankind’s real health is collapsing. “Although the individual is now living longer, his increased longevity is only ‘prolonging his misery,’ for very few men or women now enjoy true health. We have a sort of imitation health produced by a process of patching-up a fabric that is inherently unsound, and keeping it going by the application of stimulants of various kinds. Certainly we are reducing the old-fashioned epidemics; but on the other hand the degenerative diseases are gaining ground at an alarming rate. Spurious “Health” “I suggest to you,” said Lord Northbourne, “that you classify the first hundred advertisements you come across, with a view to noting the enormous percentage of those whose appeal is directed towards health, or whose aim is to ensure an appearance of health (and in these cosmetics should be included). We aim merely at the appearance—not the reality—of health. Health is our obsession to an extraordinary degree, so we have recourse to stimulants, including those for the mind. “Britain spends every year £275,000,000 on public health. This exceeds £6 per head of the population and of course does not include private expenditure on sickness, which must be an even greater amount. The healih of our animals is no better than our own. There are increasing demands for veterinary services, and there is great difficulty in maintaining the vigour of breedingstocks. There is, too, a shortening oT the ‘useful’ life of the animal; and in the case of poultry and dairycows this drawback has begun to overshadow the benefit of high yields from individual animals.”