Yes, depressing.
I think it's really the question of scale that's a problem. The current system is set up to subsidize the mega corporations that use the products of that extractive agriculture. As you say, they have no incentives to preserve the soil or work regeneratively.
But, yes, there is so much that we know now that we can put to use! Many of us are doing what we can, and it's a movement that's gaining traction.
I do have a lot of hope in the regenerative agriculture movement. My parents are homesteading up in Tennessee and learning regenerative agriculture, and I pick up a little bit of knowledge every time I visit.
Regarding the incentives and scale, are you familiar with the economic theory of Distributism? I read Hilaire Belloc's Essay on the Restoration of Property a couple of years ago to get an introduction to the theory. The idea there of pushing the drivers of economic activity down to the most local, small scale as possible seems to me like it would address many of the broken incentives we face today.
