Man and his Environment; S. Aldrich

The image of a.griculture is poor in the minds of environmentalists. Ecologists generally view farmers, Dr. Aldrich is a member of the Illinois Pollu tion Control Board, on leave from the Univer sity of Illinois where he is Professor of Soil Fertility Extension. This is a paper delivered before the Foundation for American Agricul ture in Chicago, December 2, 1970. agribusiness, and agricultural sci entists as interested only in mak ing a. profit and as having little knowledge of or concern for ef fects on the environment and even human health. Ecologists and so cial scientists feel that they must, therefore, assume responsibility for saving the environment. In contrast, persons in agricul ture perceive themselves as being responsible for producing high quality food at a reasonable price and thus contributing to the wel fare of mankind. They view ecolo gists as idealists without practi cal knowledge of agriculture, hence capable neither of suggest ing acceptable changes nor of fore seeing the disastrous effects of some simple solutions they sug gest.

D.uring the past few years when the attitudes of society were being 661 662 THE FREEMAN November formulated, ecologists and many social scientists were effectively using the news media to mold pub lic opinion. Meanwhile, we in agri culture were mainly going about the business of efficient produc tion. Consequently, there is both lack of information and much mis information about the effects of agriculture. Every school child has heard about the pervasive effects of DDT and the claim that nitrogen and phosphorus from fertilizers are destroying streams and lakes. Most everyone has· heard of the "con centration of DDT in the food chain." I submit that there is a corollary: "The concentration of unsubstantiated opinions in the information chain." We should not blame environ mentalists and the media entirely for this state of affairs. We sim ply have been remiss in analyzing the over-all, long-term effects of practices and making them known to scientists in other disciplines and to the public through the news media.

Many persons have been led to believe that science and technology have caused the problems and therefore must be restricted in a wholesale manner. The fact is that, though science and tech nology in agriculture and else where have created certain envi ronmental problems (along with tremendous benefits), only more science and technology correctly applied can solve the problems! More Effective Communication We are experiencing an unusual phenomenon. A substantial num ber of people, especially young peo ple, believe that we are on the verge of catastrophe unless we im mediately stop many forms of pol lution including the use of fer tilizers and pesticides. Since a lot of people hold that view, it should not surprise us that some drastic measures to curb pollution are be ing suggested. Desperate persons are susceptible to radical ideas. Those engaged in agriculture and members of society in general would benefit from a thorough un derstanding of the effects, both fa vorable and unfavorable, of mod ern agriculture on the environ ment. But there is a, barrier to ef fective communication. How do you reach persons whose views are already firmly set and who there fore interpret your sincere at tempts at objective presentations as merely defending continued use of fertilizers, pesticides, and so on, for personal gain?

There are two ways to react to environmentalists whom you be lieve to be wrong: a. Watch for their mistakes and then "slap them down." The trouble with that course 1971 MAN AND HIS ENVIRONMENT 663 is that charges make the front page headlines where as rebuttals are put on the back pages near the want ads. b. Assume they are sincere and try to work with them before they have interpreted their data, made up their minds, and published their mistakes. This is a more mature and effective course of action. The Fads About Nitrates There are three false impres sions about nitrogen that are gen erally held by environmentalists and widely accepted by the public: 1. That nitrate in water is in creasing at an alarming rate. 2. That commercial fertilizer is the cause. 3. That returning to· legumes, animal manure, and soil hu mus for nitrogen would cor rect the supposed situation. The nitrate content of the Mis sissippi River at Chester, Illinois, has not increased over the past ten years. Nitrate in the Illinois and Wabash Rivers appears to have increased slightly since 1956. The Kaskaskia near its confluence with the Mississippi has not increased in nitrate concentration since 1946.

This river, through an unfortunate error in data summary, is the basis for the widely disseminated idea that nitrates tripled between 1946 and 1966. Specific cases of high nitrates and rapid increases in small rivers and streams can be found, and undoubtedly nitro gen fertilizer is a contributing cause. There are also instances of decreases in nitrates. We should continue to be concerned about ni trates and to increase surveillance of streams but not assume that nitrates have generally reached alarming levels. Impressions 2 and 3 are predi cated on the belief that nitrogen from commercial fertilizer be haves differently than nitrogen from animal manure, legumes, or soil humus. Regardless of source, near ly all of the nitrogen used by crops is in the ammonium (NHt) form prior to conversion by nitri fying soil organisms to nitrate (NOi). Nitrate derived from fertilizer is neither more nor less leachable than nitrate from man ure, legumes, or soil humus; and regardless of source, a definite amount of nitrate nitrogen is re quired to produce 100 bushels of corn. The potential for excessive nitrates in the environment is de termined by the crop yield goal.

The undesirable effects of agri cultural technology have been ex tensively analyzed, though not al ways accurately or in proper perspective, in both popular and scientific literature and through the news media.

664 THE FREEMAN November Technology Works Both Ways The beneficial effects of tech nology on the environment have not received the attention they deserve! The usual approach in supporting continued use of fer tilizers, pesticides, and antibiotics is quite logically that they are es sential for the production of ade quate amounts of high quality food at a reasonable price. But I feel that technology properly used is justified because of its positive effects on the environment. Data. from the Morrow Plots on the campus of the University of . Illinois illustrate the effect of dif ferent levels of fertility. The plots have been under cultivation and study for nearly a century; hence they are a valid index of long term effects. Illinois grows about 10 million acres of corn with intensive use of modern technology. The Mor row Plots data indicate that if only manure, lime, and phosphorus were applied in a continuous corn system, 14 million acres would be required. If no fertility treat ments were applied, the need would increase to 27 million acres.

An alternative cropping system of corn-oats-Iegume hay with ma nure, lime, and phosphorus would require 14 million acres to produce usable therms of energy equal to 10 million acres of corn with full treatment (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, limestone) and 30 mil lion if no fertility treatments 'were applied. These are, of course, extreme and unrealistic alternatives but they illustrate the point that fer tility treatments minimize the cropland acres needed for food production. What, then, would be the effect on the environment of greatly reducing or giving up fer tilizers? It would be a disaster. Without nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and limestone applica tions our. soil resource could not be preserved and future-genera tions would reap a tragic harvest of famine. Nitrogen is the key to maintaining soil organic matter in intensive cropping systems. Soil organic matter is a key to maintaining surface structure and water infiltration c.apacity.

The increased acres needed for food production as a result of lower acre yields would increase \vater runoff, floods, and erosion, thus accelerating pollution due to sediment, phosphorus, pesticides, and organic matter. Two con tributing causes would be: a) in creased acres of cropland, and b) more cropland on sloping fields. Increasing the acres of crop land would further reduce the small areas of woodland, wildlife habitat, and recreational land in much of the Midwest.

1971 MAN AND HIS ENVIRONMENT 665 I have used fertilizers to show that technology has ,a positive ef fectbecause it minimizes the acres required for food produc tion. The principle applies to all of agriculture. The facts that one modern dairy cow replaces two of a few generations ago or that a broiler now can be grown on little more than one-half as much feed as before reduce the undesirable impact of man's demands upon the environment. No Simple Solutions; Intertwining Practices There are few if any simple solutions to the control of pollu ti on. In ,agriculture, as in the ecosystem as a whole or among the facets of a. free enterprise economic system, practices are in tricately intertwined. Restrictions on the use of science and tech nology in agriculture must he ap proached with caution and with broad understanding of the side effects lest the cure be worse than the disease. Henry Hazlitt in his epilogue to The Art of Th1inki.ng eNash Pub lishing Corp., 1969) makes some comments that I feel could well guide anyone who wants to con tribute to environmental improve ment.

". . . no man can hope to do original work or even profitable thinking in any science or branch of knowledge until he has gone to the trouble to learn what has al ready been discovered in that branch of knowledge. He must know the previous state 0 f the question. Then he will see whether he can make any contribution of his own. "When the great Isaac Newton was asked how he had been able to make such tremendous contri butions to human knowledge and thought, and to see so much far ther than other men, he answered modestly: 'I stood on the shoul ders of giants.' In other words, he was able to build on what his pre decessors had discovered. "We who live today are in one respect in a more enviable posi tion than any other generation in history. We stand on the shoul ders of giants .... So an intelli gent college student today is· in a position to learn more about cal culus than Newton, more about economics than Adam Smith, more about evolution than Darwin,"

and, may I add, more about the environment than any ~cientist to this point in time. I am convinced that concern for the environment will continue to grow but will likely receive less attention from the news media and politicians. Though agricul ture is presently a target for criti cism, I believe that by choosing the right strategy the interest 666 THE FREEMAN November that has been generated in agri cultural practices can be used for the betterment of agriculture and society as a whole. I have a positive, constructive attitude toward our economic sys tem. It has prod uced miracles within a framework of limited objectives. I feel that it is unfair and serves no purpose to blame previous generations for blind"Every Man a King" ness, ruthlessness, or sheer greed in their use of the environment. They had as many thoughtful, sensitive citizens as we have. But we have the advantage of observ ing the cumulative effects of our activities over a longer period of time. Consequently, we evaluate some practices differently now than then, and should act ac cordingly. I) IDEAS ON L$ LIBERTY LIBERTY, or the right to act as one wills according to his wisdom and conscience, is sometimes charged with being "license" and totally irresponsible conduct. But, on the contrary, responsibility of the highest order is required in a liberal society. What social design could be more challenging, in terms of responsibility, self discipline, and self-control, than that of liberalism in its require ments of self-restraint; in avoiding trespass on the rights and the property of others; in its respect for the rights of others to dis agree without precipitating conflict? Liberty requir'es the highest order of conduct in its P1\actice.

The disciplines of liberty, however, have their rewards. "Every man a king" has had great appeal as a political slogan. The near est possible approach to it is to be found in a liberal society, in which everyone is king over his own affairs to the greatest possible extent. At the other extreme, one man is king over all men instead of every man being king to a degree. F. A. HARPER, Liberty: A Path to Its Recovery CLARENCE B. CARSON THE FOUNDING OF THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC 4 The Colonial Political Experience I HAVE OFTEN asked a class at the beginning of a course in history if they have heard the saying, "Ex perience is the best teacher." Us ually, all or most of them indicate that they have. To confound them, I tell them that what they have heard is most likely a debasement of an older and possibly much wiser epigram. Benjamin Frank lin gave this formulation to it: "Experience keeps a dear school; the fool will learn in no other."