The 11th Commandment

Eleventh Commandment (Walter Lowdermilk) In 1939 this appeared in a Bulletin of the US Department of Agriculture:

"Thou shalt inherit the Holy Earth as a faithful steward, conserving its resources and productivity from generation to generation.Thou shalt safeguard thy fields from soil erosion, thy living waters from drying up, thy forests from desolation, and protect thy hills from overgrazing by thy herds, that thy descendents may have abundance forever."

"If any shall fail in this stewardship of the land, thy fruitful fields shall become sterile stony ground and wasting gullies, and thy descendents shall decrease and live in poverty or perish from off the face of the earth."

• quoted on page 58 of Lester Brown, Plan B, from Walter C. Lowdermilk, Conquest of the Land through 7,000 years, USDA bulletin No. 99 (Washington, D.C., U.S. Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service, 1939. note 1 page 24.