Word: biotic
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Dates: during 1948-1948
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THANKS TO TIME FOR NEEDED ANTIDOTE TO RECENT SCARE BOOKS RE FOOD AND PEOPLE. BIOTIC POTENTIAL OF SOILS IS NOT A CONSTANT BUT RATHER A FUNCTION OF ADVANCING SCIENCE APPLIED TO BOTH CROPS AND SOILS . . . PRODUCTIVITY OF U.S. FARM LANDS IS RISING NOT FALLING...
First is the notion that "soil cannot be stretched," that each acre has a certain production capacity (Vogt calls it "biotic potential") which cannot be boosted without dire peril. This is the same fallacy that expresses itself in the old saying, "There are only so many slices in the cake." Some businessmen say this when they decide that their markets cannot be expanded and, therefore, should be divided among them in quotas set by their cartel. Some labor unions decide that there are only so many jobs to be divided, and therefore oppose labor-saving devices...
...great historic achievements was to "stretch" the sandy acres of the Prussian plain, by good farming. As a result of good farming practices and highly skilled industry, Germany had the highest living standard of Continental Europe. Yet, obsessed by slice-of-cake thinking, it set out to conquer more "biotic potential...
...Tennessee (average corn yield 25 bushels an acre), hybrid corn has produced 157.2 bushels an acre. The produce of one such bountiful acre would keep 17 corn-eating Mexican peas ants in tortillas for a year. Such results reduce to gibberish Vogt's theory of "biotic potential...