At Genetic Literacy Project, American Council on Science and Health Research Associate Nicholas Staropoli details the benefits of no-till agriculture.
One of the main images most Americans have of farming is of a plow being pulled by a tractor (or in more antiquated images livestock) turning the land. Technically speaking this act is referred to as tillage: the preparation of soil for planting by mechanically turning it over. Today, most global farmland is prepared in this way and has been for several millennia.
But tillage has many side effects that injure both farmland and the environment. In the push to make farming more sustainable, an increasing number of conservation-minded farmers have turned to what is called no-till agriculture. But the technique is not being universally embraced. Because of the entrenched views of many organic farmers, the group one would think would be most embracing of this tool are shunning it. In contrast, farmers that are growing genetically modified crops are its biggest proponents, and it s helped contribute to a sizable reduction in the release of greenhouse gases in farm fields. How did this odd situation come about?