Tuesday, June 24, 2008

TVA and the corn crop

Sometimes it takes a while to realize when you’ve been duped, when you realize it is far too late to do much about it.

The federal government – yes, that one we call ours – sold our ancestors a bill of goods when they promised a new kind of fertilizer all could afford; to bring back to life the worn out soil in the South. Particularly the farmland in North Alabama.

You remember where to find that promise. Look no farther that the TVA Act of 1933. The words still are there. (Partial quote of Sec. 5).

The Board is hereby authorized—
(b) To arrange with farmers and farm organizations for large-scale practical use of the new forms of fertilizers under conditions permitting an accurate measure of the economic return they produce.
(c) To cooperate with National, State, district, or county experimental stations or demonstration farms, with farmers, landowners, and associations of farmers or landowners, for the use of new forms of fertilizer or fertilizer practices during the initial or experimental period of their introduction, and for promoting the prevention of soil erosion by the use of fertilizers and otherwise.
(d) The Board in order to improve and cheapen the production of fertilizer is
authorized to manufacture and sell fixed nitrogen, fertilizer, and fertilizer ingredients at Muscle Shoals by the employment of existing facilities, by modernizing existing plants, or by any other process or processes that in its judgment shall appear wise and profitable for the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen or the cheapening of the production of fertilizer.
(e) Under the authority of this Act the Board may make donations or sales of the product of the plant or plants operated by it to be fairly and equitably distributed through the agency of county demonstration agents, agricultural colleges, or otherwise as the Board may direct, for experimentation, education, and introduction of the use of such products in cooperation with practical farmers so as to obtain information as to the value effect, and best methods of their use.
(f) The Board is authorized to make alterations, modifications, or improvements in existing plants and facilities, and to construct new plants.

What happened to that dream of a healthy, productive farming community in the valley? The law still is there but the TVA chooses to ignore it to the detriment of farmers and agriculture in general.

I envision a vast crop-growing farmland area almost as large as the San Joaquin Valley in California. True, the soil in that valley is richer than most of the farmland in the South but it could have been a different story if the TVA had followed through with their charge to improve farming and agriculture as stated in the present TVA Act.

There is one major difference between the San Joaquin Valley and the Tennessee River Valley. And that is water. And it appears that water will become very scarce in the San Joaquin Valley in the not too distant future. Already some lands lay fallow for lack of enough water.

The Tennessee River and its tributaries have never run dry although the flow has slowed with the present drought conditions.

If irrigation had followed the enrichment of Southern soil with improved and cheap fertilizer (as called for in the TVA Act) it would not be hard to imagine a Southern “breadbasket”.

I do hope the corn crop is abundant and that their prayers for more rain would be answered with an irrigation system using Tennessee River water.

Ernest Norsworthy
emnorsworthy@earthlink.net

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