Margaret D. Andrews
Soil erosion is caused by water run off and the wind blowing on bare soil.
In parts of the world, tropical rainforests are cut down to make farmland and provide special kinds of wood.
Soil erosion can occur when forests are cut down and water floods land used for farming. Topsoil is washed away and crops cannot grow.
In some poor countries, the population is growing so fast that the good soil is used up because the people cannot afford to put vital nutrients back into the land. They then must cut down forests for new farmland. Sometimes this causes land to become degraded.
Soil erosion can also occur if farmers let the soil lie bare part of the year. They need to keep the right kinds of crops planted year round, to bind the soil together.
“Backyard mechanics” in the U.S. generate more than 324 million gallons of used oil, and dispose most of it improperly.
The U.S. has always had so much farmland that farmers produce more food than the country needs. The extra food is sold to other countries. However, in some cases, U.S. farmers are not taking care of the farmland and we are losing tens of millions of tons of topsoil each year.
U.S. homeowners use up to 2 1/2 times more pesticides per acre to keep lawns weed free than farmers do to keep crops weed free.