When we bought our farm it had been conventionally farmed for decades. Not even by the biggest tractors in the world. But the compaction is real, and the hard pan that develops over time is as well. Tiling and aeration release a lot of carbon into the atmosphere, and while they offer some short term benefit, they also destroy the soil structure over time. This is why “no till” is a popular buzzword these days; people are trying to find ways to replace tiling in the effort of rebuilding soil.

This isn’t new — when “Tree Crops: a permanent agriculture” was written last century, it focused on the ever depleting top soil in the United States and elsewhere, and inspired the concept of Agroforestry.