Industrial farming is an oxymoron.  It is not farming.  It's extraction.  Liquidation.  Stripmining.

In Iowa, the production of one bushel of corn may cause the loss of two bushels of topsoil.

That's Wendell Berry, some ten or so years ago.

The only reason chem/fossil farming seems to "work" and produce high yields is that it stripmines biotic resources.  Much as the only reason industrial capitalism seems to "work" and produce rapid growth is that it stripmines biotic resources.  Hornborg, Hornborg, Hornborg...

... and everyone goes on buying cheap air tickets.

The brick wall is close enough now that we can count the bricks.

The difference between theory and practise in practise ...