“Misconceptions about farming” isn’t really accurate though. The farmers knew how to make food, but in both Russia and China, at least, the central government decided bullshit was as good as science and fucked around with a working system.
That being said, America also fucked up their soil so bad that they created a dustbowl with a non-zero deathtoll, and modern western farming practices are also fucking up the climate via algae blooms, pollinator killing pesticides and just straight up spewing diesel exhaust.
“Misconceptions about farming” isn’t really accurate though. The farmers knew how to make food, but in both Russia and China, at least, the central government decided bullshit was as good as science and fucked around with a working system.
That being said, America also fucked up their soil so bad that they created a dustbowl with a non-zero deathtoll, and modern western farming practices are also fucking up the climate via algae blooms, pollinator killing pesticides and just straight up spewing diesel exhaust.
The problem was that they thought Lysenkoism was science. Obviously, plants would grow according to Marxist ideology because why wouldn’t they?
It didn’t help that Lysenko started off being right. It turns out that planting some seeds deeper does increase yields!
Clearly we should double the depth!