• Question: If we can’t sustain our natural nutrients is it more likely to cause climate change?

    Asked by anon-190583 to Maia on 6 Nov 2018.
    • Photo: Maia Elliott

      Maia Elliott answered on 6 Nov 2018: last edited 6 Nov 2018 11:43 am


      Hiya!
      Do you mean sustain the natural nutrients in the soil?
      This is a big problem! When we grow lots of one kind of food on a patch of soil, that specific food will suck the nutrients it requires from the soil. If we then try to grow the same kind of food on that soil again, the soil will be lacking all the nutrients that that specific food requires to grow. So what farmers do, is they put fertilisers on the soil. This puts new nutrients into the soil, which allows the food to grow. However, fertilisers release a lot of greenhouse gases into the air, which causes climate change!
      There is a way to prevent this though! If we change which types of food we grow on a patch of soil, this allows the soil to recover the lost nutrients (this is called crop rotations). So for example, this spring I grew potatoes and courgettes on my vegetable patch. These have all been harvested now, so then I planted onions. Onions require different nutrients than the potatoes and courgettes, so they can grow fine! Hopefully by next spring the soil will have recovered its nutrients again, and I will be able to grow more potatoes and courgettes.

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