"The Planet Is Getting Skinned"

“The estimate is that we are now losing about 1 percent of our topsoil every year to erosion, most of this caused by agriculture.” David Montgomery, a geologist at the University of Washington describes modern agricultural practices as “soil mining” -- we are rapidly outstripping the Earth’s natural rate of restoring topsoil. True living topsoil cannot be made overnight. It grows back at a rate of an inch or two over hundreds of years. “Globally, it’s pretty clear we’re running out of dirt,” Montgomery said.