In November 2022 I drove across Kansas and Missouri, this is the Flint Hills of Kansas. The wide-open prairie, the horizon. The vastness. It feels limitless. But what is missing?
Wind breaks. When I was a child in northern Michigan, farmers planted wind breaks to reduce soil erosion. We learned about the Great Dust Bowl in the 1920s which led to the Great Depression and near starvation of many people. The growth of the deserts around the world it is said is due to a simple lack of trees which act as 'wind breaks'.
Why aren't farmers planting wind breaks any more? Hmmmm. I asked a farming expert.
"Trees reduce arable farmland by up to 10% of acreage. It is also hard to turn the new larger industrial tractors. The need to produce more food per acre reduces the desire of wind breaks so many farmers have cut down the trees."
Does anyone else see a potential problem here?