Soil is More than Just Dirt

Pretend this apple is the earth’s surface. Right away, divide the earth into fourths. Three fourths of the earth is covered by oceans, rivers, and lakes. What’s left represents the land. Now, remove one-half of the land to account for desert regions, glacial poles, and mountain peaks where many things won’t grow. Then divide this remaining piece into fourths. Remove three of the pieces because they are too rocky, wet, hot, infertile, or covered with cities and roads to grow food. Peel the skin from this tiny piece of apple, 1/32 of the earth's surface. The skin represents all the soil we have to support life on earth. This soil is trickling through our fingers at an alarming rate due to erosion. In fact, recent statistics indicate the United States is losing 6.4 billon tons of soil each year due to erosion. This amount of soil would fill 320 million dump trucks, which if parked end-to-end would extend to the moon and three-quarters of the way back.

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