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Kayla Greenwood
Mrs. Willey
2B APES
6/2/13
How to Successfully Save Soil
One of the major concerns throughout the world currently is soil becoming depleted of
nutrients. This can be due to industrial logging, slash and burn agriculture, over farming, and
more. Another current problem is what to do with all the current waste. A solution to these
problems could be composting. Composting is an alternative to throwing away organic waste,
while it also adds nutrients to soil.
Soil depletion has been a problem throughout history. In the 1930’s overuse of soil led to
The Dust Bowl. Farmers along the prairies of central United States over plowed the land causing
it to lose all its nutrients. This caused all the deep rooted plants holding the soil in place to die,
no longer holding the soil in place. Because of this, dust storms blew across the whole “Dust
Bowl” area. The dust spread so far it was even found in parts of Canada, along with the whole
United States. Also farmers across the world are had trouble farming because the soil they
farmed on was quickly becoming depleted. They can help fix this problem by learning to
compost.
Today we face many soil problems. These problems include compaction, nutrient
depletion, human-induced erosion, desertification, and more. There are many farmers across the
world with many appliances. Farmers use these appliances to harvest their crops, but what they
don’t realize is that they are destroying the soil in the process. In 1991, humans degraded 7.5
million square acres of land. The degraded soil isn’t able to be farmed, so depleted soil leads to
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food shortages. This causes farmers to more heavily farm the still nutrient filled soil. The heavier
farming on the soil then depletes it of its nutrients, starting the cycle over again. By soil
becoming depleted, a whole string of events follows. People need to realize this and take action,
even in small ways such as composting.
Our team created a compost bottle to learn how composting works and eventually release
all the nutrients into the soil. My team consisted of Rachel Ross, Claire Chambers, and myself.
We used a recycled 2 liter clear bottle for the container. Then we went to my garden and put
some of the soil in the bottle. Along with the soil were a few earth worms. They digest the food
in the compost to help speed along the process of the nutrients into the soil. Then we added cut
up fruit and vegetable scraps followed by leaves and grass. In between each layer we used a nerf
water blaster to spray in the container to keep the contents moist. We then added more soil and
strips of newspaper. We then repeated all of the above steps, finishing with soil on the top. This
was an easy and fast way to help the soil. I encourage everyone to try it because it only took
about ten minutes, but it made a difference. We also created a Pinterest board titled “The
Compost Challenge” to spread the word about compost and give ideas for people who want to
help. There are many ways to start a compost pile. We chose to do the bottle so we could see all
the layers of the compost. Another similar and easy way is to collect peels of food and
newspaper scraps and every day or every few days take the peels and scraps outside and just
throw them in a pile. The pile will eventually decompose and create rich, nutrient filled soil.
We waited two weeks, continuously spraying the container to keep it moist, and then
examined it. All the food looked brown and gross, but we knew it would be good for the soil. We
then took it out to my garden and emptied the contents around the plants. This will put nutrients
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back into the soil and help the surrounding plants grow better. Eventually the food will
completely break down, leaving new soil in its path.
I think our project was successful because we learned more about soil and how to help.
We learned about past problems with soil, present problems with soil, what other people are
doing to help, and how we could help. Instead of doing the bottle, we could have simply thrown
the food and scraps into a pile in the garden. We chose to do the bottle because it was our first
time composting and we wanted to be able to see the different layers of food and see how after
two weeks the food and scraps had begun to decompose. I will continue this project outside of
school because it will help the soil. Our garden has not been doing as well the last couple years
and it could be due to the soil losing nutrients. If my family and I continue composting, the soil
will become rich with nutrients and hopefully be successful again.
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Works Cited
Wilhite, Donald A. "DUST BOWL." DUST BOWL. Electronic Publishing Center, 2007. Web. 02
June 2013.
East Bay Community Action Program. "SEEDS Idea Search | The SEEDS Network." SEEDS
Idea Search | The SEEDS Network. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 June 2013
Mann, Charles C. "Soil." Our Good Earth. N.p., Sept. 2008. Web. 02 June 2013.