1.6: Bread baskets

We've just reviewed what balanced, healthy soils look like. Where are these soils found? There are many regions around the world where climate and geology are very favorable and therefore fertile, balanced soils result from the natural weathering processes. See the map below.

In some regions, the soil is good but other factors prevent them from becoming bread baskets. Many areas are suitable for small farms but are not good for large-scale machinery because they are too steep, rocky, or wet. Some regions have fertile soil but they also have very high human populations and therefore don't export food to other countries. West Africa, India, and China are examples. Some regions, like the American West (Rockies), the interior of Asia (Himalayas), or the coast of South America (Andes) are too mountainous to farm easily. The northern and southern latitudes do not have long enough growing seasons to support much agriculture, but that is changing as our global climate changes. For example, we never used to grow soybeans on the 44th parallel but now it has warmed up just enough to grow them (newly bred varieties also help too).

Bread basket areas are precious resources, they have enough nutrients to feed their own regional populations, and also in many cases can export and feed the world. They are indicated by green on the map. The map is a composite of several crops, soy, corn, wheat, and rice, but it also adds sorghum and millet, which is why West Africa, China, and India look like bread baskets. White-colored map areas are either too mountainous, cold, or dry to support large-scale production agriculture.

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Composite cultivation world map of Rice, Wheat, Millet, Oats and Maize. Nithyan and Kota.

Another important reason lands with good soils don't grow a lot of food is because of moisture. Some areas, like deserts, never have enough moisture or rainfall to grow many crops. Some other areas that were once productive, like North Africa and the Middle East, used the land in ways that allowed the desert to spread, and now these areas can barely support their own populations. Central Africa and the Amazon Basin in South America have too much rain. Rain brings humidity, pests, and diseases that interfere with cropping systems.

Another factor in the 'moisture regime' is the timing of rains. Favorable global wind patterns must bring adequate rains during the growing season for crops to thrive. Some areas have wet and dry seasonal rainfall and farmers have learned how to work in those systems. The large bread basket regions of the world are the American Midwest, Argentinian and Brazilian pampas, Russia and Ukraine, Poland, and much of Europe. What do all the bread baskets have in common? They have winds that blow onto the land, not away from the land. That is a lucky accident of location.

Look at the map below. When the wind blows across the landscape, you will get rain. When it generally blows away from land, your climate will be dry. Most of our high-producing agricultural regions require, ideally, an inch of precipitation every week during the growing season. In the American Midwest, we get a convergence of air sweeping in across the western mountains and Canada meeting up with warm Gulf air full of moisture. Rain is the result, beautiful rain. Look at the Midwest United States, Brazil, Europe, China, Poland, Ukraine, and Eastern Russia; these are flat lands with enough moisture to feed resident populations and export to other countries. These are the areas we also need to pay attention to and farm responsibly. We have only been on some of these soils for about 100 years and they are already showing signs of wear and tear. Will they last another hundred years? Yes, but we must learn how to take care of these precious soils that have taken millennia to form.

Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\): Global Wind Map.