ABSTRACT
Protection of our soil from erosion is just the beginning of our close relationship with nature. We can make soil better as well as protect it by understanding and using nature’s nutrient cycles. Often, the best way to do that is to mimic nature’s own pressures to have a diverse range of plants live in the best agricultural regions. Pest control offers a similar challenge. City people draw their resources from many places in nature. For instance, if they get food from one set of farms that are wearing out because of bad farming practices, they start buying food from other farms that still have good soil left. The importance of the whole history of agriculture is that important elements of sustainable systems can be found in it from the earliest times. The internal resources of farms can become weaker or stronger depending on how they are used and how they are regenerated. But they are permanent and, therefore, sustainable.
