A Matter of Inches

The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.                              Genesis 1:12

I am reading a fascinating book titled, Sea of Grass. It is a story of the vast prairie land of the middle United States. It discusses the fragility of the American prairie, and how it has changed over the past two centuries. It is a tale of scientific wonder, the sad destruction of a natural resource, and in my opinion, a description of the delicate balance of nature that God bestows on us.

The matter of inches is the depth of the precious topsoil of that prairie, now plowed and cultivated. That top 5-10 inches of earth is the topsoil that feeds much of the world with its corn, wheat, rye, and other grains.

The book describes how artificial fertilizers have been both a source of life for millions, and a source of destruction downstream at the mouth of the Mississippi River where a dead zone of algae blooms depletes the oxygen of the Gulf waters. It is the runoff of many agricultural watersheds which have dumped concentrated, Nitrogen rich fertilizers into rivers feeding the Mississippi..

I was struck by the fragility of those 5-10 inches of topsoil. During the terrible Dust Bowl days in the 1930’s, millions of acres of topsoil were literally blown away, covering a space reaching to the Atlantic Ocean.

We have learned many lessons since then, and land management is orders of magnitude better since then. But life on this beautiful planet is at the same time, amazingly hardy, and frighteningly fragile.  

What a bountiful legacy we have been given to preserve!

Prayer: Lord, what an amazing gift you have given to us, Amen.