America is running out of soil

Farmland is eroding at 10 times the rate it's being naturally replenished. This is a huge deal.

American soil
(Image credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Roman historian Marcus Cato was a politician, writer, and soldier. He wrote seven volumes on the history of the republic, led Roman armies, and lent his name to his great-grandson, the philosopher Cato the Younger. But, amid all this, Marcus Cato also found time to look at the ground beneath his feet.

One of his most popular writings was a set of advice for farmers, which lays out more than 10 different types of earth — heavy, warm, dry, chalky, marshy, damp, with fog, without fog — and the plants that go in it. A man who would look after the budget and military strategy of one of the world's biggest empires devoted pages to the different patches of soil on a farm, and discussed planting with the same detail as a war plan. His writing was a big hit.

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Matt Hansen has written and edited for a series of online magazines, newspapers, and major marketing campaigns. He is currently active in press freedom and safety research with Global Journalist Security.