"Organic farming, Nichols tells me, is really about the health of the soil and the ecosystems producing our food. Nichols wants to show me the difference between soil from conventional agriculture, which uses chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and soil from what Rodale calls regenerative organic agriculture, which uses natural pest management, extensive cover crops, and natural fertilizer like manure."

Okay, if we are going to cut out most of our animal consumption, there goes most of our manure, no?

And if we stick to natural fertilizer, that cuts our potential crop yields by a huge amount. We just don't have a natural means to get enough nitrogen into the soil without the Haber-Bosch process.

Combine those two items alone and I guess we will lose at least 2/3 of our fertilizer supply.

So the first step needs to be, if I'm reading right - get rid of a few billion people?