Translations:Manfred Klett: Von der Agrartechnologie zur Landbaukunst/103/en

bearer of soil fertility. With proper husbandry — in the sense of the organism principle — the substance and force household of the farm regenerates itself to a large degree. Set against industry's consumption of energy and raw materials stands the build-up, the self-generated manure, and the new formation of humus. The pure primary production of agriculture, taking into account all measures serving the build-up of the soil (manuring, crop rotation, soil cultivation), has a positive energy balance. This fact is today reversed into its opposite by the high capital input in the form of nitrogen fertilizers, biocides, purchased feedstuffs, and energy. The erosion-related loss of soil, even on only gently sloping ground in industrially operated agriculture (above all in maize cultivation), is also to be mentioned here. Viewed from the perspective of the economy as a whole and into the future, however, agriculture has the task of providing the counterbalance to the negative energy balance of industry.