Eroding Topsoil Troubles Midwest Farmers
A Moment of Science

Eroding Topsoil Troubles Midwest Farmers

B2Upper-intermediateOctober 22, 20262 min
  • Documentary
  • Science

Eroding Topsoil Troubles Midwest Farmers

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Sentence 2 of 12 · 0:06

When you imagine the Midwest, what do you picture?

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the horizon.

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  • 21 harder words (B2 and up) in the whole episode.

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0:00

When you imagine the Midwest, what do you picture? I think of endless farmland, under bright blue skies, with crops stretching out to the horizon. Silos and fences dot the scenery.

0:15

Such a bucolic setting gave researchers the topic of a study. Sure, farms spread across the Midwest now, but 200 years ago, it was native prairies that dominated, with their wild, tall grasses waving in the breeze. Fragments of these prairies still exist in small patches, and at the meeting of prairie

0:34

and agricultural field, you can find something called an erosional escarpment. Prairie land sits about a foot higher than farmland, and the escarpment is the short, steep slope of ground between prairie and farm. Over nearly two centuries, cultivated fields have lost topsoil, creating the elevation

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