Elsewhere in this thread there is a discussion about Terra Preta (the local version of sustainable soil). Simple techniques like this have been used all over the world for thousands of years, from Eastern China, to the Steppes, to the cow-dung based agriculture in India.
I wonder if there is an analysis somewhere on how much land will be needed to completely move away from harsh, "chemical" based fertilizers to naturally occurring ways to replenish agricultural lands. We don't have to eat meat all the time and may be 7 billion people could be fed a decent, vegetarian, varied diet with the existing lands without the modern fertilizers?
On a side note to that point, have you tasted the difference between simple, unsalted German butters and the ones sold in NYC? Oh my god. You will never want to come to America on that basis alone. (Sorry, a bit of hyperbole there; there may be one or two other reasons to not go to the USA).
I wonder if there is an analysis somewhere on how much land will be needed to completely move away from harsh, "chemical" based fertilizers to naturally occurring ways to replenish agricultural lands. We don't have to eat meat all the time and may be 7 billion people could be fed a decent, vegetarian, varied diet with the existing lands without the modern fertilizers?
On a side note to that point, have you tasted the difference between simple, unsalted German butters and the ones sold in NYC? Oh my god. You will never want to come to America on that basis alone. (Sorry, a bit of hyperbole there; there may be one or two other reasons to not go to the USA).