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31 images Created 11 Jul 2017

WORLD FOOD: Soil

Soil is the essential resource that makes our worldwide food supply possible. It is threatened by erosion, degradation and pollution. We should know more about it, but even after thousands of years of human agriculture, centuries of religious and cultural reverence as the source of creation, and decades of scientific research, soil remains a mystery.

The vast majority of us never give soil a second thought. Our story for National Geographic sought to make these connections, to take readers down into the soil, to make it the actor in our narrative in ways that make soil and its workings a thing of beauty and wonder.
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  • Soil profile in virgin prairie in Kansas.
    MM6977_060718_00383.jpg
  • Soil salinization in the Grand Valley near Grand Junction, Colorado.  Salt within in the soil leaches to the surface, or is pushed up by groundwater. With only eight inches of rainfall per year the region is arid.  Farmers use irrigation water, which also forces the salt down into the subsoil, but also adds salinity to the nearby Colorado River.
    MM6977_070623_01147.jpg
  • The Palouse of Washigton is an area of loess hills built out of wind-blown dust.  High hills are extremely fertile, with exceptional production of dryland wheat.
    MM6977_070625_02787.jpg
  • The Palouse of Washigton is an area of loess hills built out of wind-blown dust.  High hills are extremely fertile, with exceptional production of dryland wheat.
    MM6977_070625_03045.jpg
  • The Palouse of Washigton is an area of loess hills built out of wind-blown dust.  High hills are extremely fertile, with exceptional production of dryland wheat.
    MM6977_070625_03297.jpg
  • The Palouse of Washigton is an area of loess hills built out of wind-blown dust.  High hills are extremely fertile, with exceptional production of dryland wheat.
    MM6977_070625_03870.jpg
  • Morning views from Steptoe Butte of the agricultural lands of the Palouse.  The Palouse of Washigton is an area of loess hills built out of wind-blown dust.  High hills are extremely fertile, with exceptional production of dryland wheat.
    MM6977_070627_04151.jpg
  • Soil layers of the Palouse region of eastern Washington are revealed in a deep road cut.  More then ten layers of buried paleosoils are visible to soil scientist John Reganold of Washington State University.
    MM6977_070629_05251.jpg
  • Soil comparison of organically farmed soil and conventionally farmed soil at the Rodale Institute near Kutztown, Pennsylvania.  The soil on the left is from a test plot that has been farmed organically for 30 years.  Soil at right is conventionally farmed soil from a same test field.  Organically farmed soil has good structure and holds water and its shape.  Conventionally farmed soil has almost no structure and falls apart in water.
    MM6977_070712_09006.jpg
  • Archeologists from the Central Amazon Project work in the forest of Brazil to discover the workings of terra preta (black earth) and how it was created by the indians living in the area.The vast quantity of potsherds and their even distribution indicates the were produced for the purpose and placed in the soil by the native Indians, not left by accident.
    MM6977_070804_12449.jpg
  • Soil fungi growing on petri dishes at Iowa State University
    MM6977_070824_12698.jpg
  • Aerial of farmland in southwest Wisconsin near the Mississippi River, south of La Crosse.  Farms surrounded by clouds along the ridges of the rich Loess bluffs along the Mississippi River.
    MM6977_070826_13434-Edit.jpg
  • Horse Drawn Plowing Demonstration, Wisconsin
    MM6977_070920_17374.jpg
  • Soils in Syria.  Scenes of the Dead Cities, where ancient Byzantine ruins tell of  prosperous communities that are now abandoned. Soil erosion ended the fertility of the area that supported a large population.<br />
<br />
At the Dead City of Kharrab Shams outside of Aleppo.
    MM6977_071005_17659.jpg
  • Soils in Syria.  Scenes of the Dead Cities, where ancient Byzantine ruins tell of  prosperous communities that are now abandoned. Soil erosion ended the fertility of the area that supported a large population.
    MM6977_071005_18040.jpg
  • At the Dead City of Baqerha in the mountains outside of Aleppo.  Properous in Byzantine times and until the 9th or 10th centuries, the Dead Cities fell prey to environmental destruction, first earthquakes, then soil erosion that destroyed any hope of prosperity and full repopulation.<br />
<br />
<br />
In the background can be seen the Dead City of Dargeeta.
    MM6977_071007_18787.jpg
  • The ruins of the ancient city of Palmyra, once a thriving city with rich agriculture and rich soil.
    MM6977_071008_19039.jpg
  • Rice terraces near Mengpin in Yuanyang county of Yunnan Province, China.  Farmers harvest the rice, the clean up the terraces, scraping the grass and weed from the terraces and repairing the raised banks that hold the water in, preparing the fields for the next crop.
    MM6977_071016_23210.jpg
  • Li Kaixin family harvesting rice near Sheng Cun Village in Yuanyang County, Yunan province, China.  The grain is threshed in the field before bagging to carry out.  The stalks are laid out to dry in the terraces.
    MM6977_071020_20938.jpg
  • The worst erosion on Earth is seen in the deeply gullied hills of the Loess plateau in Shaanxi province of China.  Small fields are all that is left as the erosion whittles away at the land available for crops.
    MM6977_071020_24250.jpg
  • Restoration in the Loess Plateau region of China  Wang Chun Jun harvesting potatoes high on the hills above Miao Jia Yan village in Zizhou County where there is a very large restoration project planting date trees.
    MM6977_071020_26826-2.jpg
  • Restoration in the Loess Plateau region of China.  Fo Tang Yan village in Zizhou County where there is a very large restoration project planting date trees.  The propaganda moto on a terrace read "Plant a thousand mu (Chinese acres) of date trees for a thousand years of prosperity."
    MM6977_071020_27188.jpg
  • Aly Ouedraogo has led efforts to restore farmland in Gourcy, about 40 kilometers south of Ouahigouya in Burkina Faso.  Work included using low rows of stones called bunds, to control water flow and let water permeate into the soil.  The picture show the landscape in March 1986 when work began, and illustrates how barren the land was at the time.
    MM6977_071208_31662.jpg
  • Aly Ouedraogo has led efforts to restore farmland in Gourcy, about 40 kilometers south of Ouahigouya in Burkina Faso.  Work included using low rows of stones called bunds, to control water flow and let water permeate into the soil.  The picture show the landscape in March 1986 when work began, and illustrates how barren the land was at the time.
    MM6977_071208_31716.jpg
  • In the villages around Keita, Niger villagers and the FAO have combined efforts to restore 36,000 sq. kilometers of land that was ravaged by the droughts of the 70's and 80's.  Most of the work has been done by some 10,000 women of the area, returning much of the land to productivity.In all they have planted 18,000,000 trees.
    MM6977_071211_32378.jpg
  • In the villages around Keita, Niger villagers and the FAO have combined efforts to restore 36,000 sq. kilometers of land that was ravaged by the droughts of the 70's and 80's.  Most of the work has been done by some 10,000 women of the area, returning much of the land to productivity.In all they have planted 18,000,000 trees.
    MM6977_071211_32468.jpg
  • In the villages around Keita, Niger villagers and the FAO have combined efforts to restore 36,000 sq. kilometers of land that was ravaged by the droughts of the 70's and 80's.  Most of the work has been done by some 10,000 women of the area, returning much of the land to productivity.In all they have planted 18,000,000 trees.
    MM6977_071211_32632.jpg
  • In the villages around Keita, Niger villagers and the FAO have combined efforts to restore 36,000 sq. kilometers of land that was ravaged by the droughts of the 70's and 80's.  Most of the work has been done by some 10,000 women of the area, returning much of the land to productivity.In all they have planted 18,000,000 trees.
    MM6977_071211_32699.jpg
  • In the village of Garadawa, near Keita, Niger.  One of the villages where the Project Keita has been restoring soil.  Most of the work has been done by the women of the area.
    MM6977_071211_33053.jpg
  • In the village of Garadawa, near Keita, Niger.  One of the villages where the Project Keita has been restoring soil.  Most of the work has been done by the women of the area. Zakari Minara is the older lady holding court over the operation where the women were winnowing the sorghum.
    MM6977_071211_33211.jpg
  • Jerry Glover of the Land Institute dig a soil pit to expose roots of grasses and wheat for examination.
    RootProfileDig 20060608 0104.jpg