For the love of soil

December sees the celebration of World Soil Day! This is the day, held annually on 5 December, that focuses attention on the importance of healthy soil and advocates for the sustainable management of soil resources. The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) supported the establishment of a special day as a global awareness platform, and the world celebrated the first World Soil Day in 2014.

This year, by addressing the increasing challenges of soil management, the FAO aims to raise awareness of the importance of sustaining healthy ecosystems and human wellbeing. By encouraging people around the world to engage in proactively improving soil health, the campaign also aims to raise the profile of healthy soil.

Here at the Soil Association the message of World Soil Day resonates perfectly with our goals, and this year more than ever the topic of soil has come into sharp focus. There is growing awareness of where our food comes from and how it is produced. This has been reflected not just in the explosion in sales of organic food, but culturally too with the release of films like ‘Kiss The Ground’ on Netflix putting soil health squarely in the mainstream.

Soil is essential

Soil is essential for life on earth. It is the earth’s living skin we all rely on. One quarter of all known species live within soil. Soils store rain after storms and filter our water. Soils hold more carbon than our atmosphere and vegetation combined. As Lady Eve Balfour, founder of the Soil Association said:

The health of soil, plant, animal and man is one and indivisible.

But soils are also fragile and declining soil health spells trouble for everyone. When soils are left bare, undernourished and compacted they become more vulnerable to extreme weather. As climate change makes our weather events more volatile, soils are more prone to erosion, being washed downstream or being blown off the fields. This can mean losing years of stored carbon as well as the ability to store more. Degraded soils can mean a drastic reduction in food production too.

Soil health on our farms

The Agriculture Act 2020 became law in November: the UK’s first in over 70 years. The new law is one of a number of post-Brexit laws required to replace EU legislation. It provides the framework for farmers and land managers to receive public money for delivering ‘public goods’, and after a successful campaign by the Soil Association and our partners, protecting and improving the quality of soil features as one of these public goods.

Agroecology is sustainable farming that works together with nature. This naturefriendly approach to farming works with wildlife rather than against it, and here at the Soil Association we pride ourselves on finding real, nature-friendly solutions to the issues we all face. As a member you are supporting over 20 active field labs this year that work with farmers to find practical and applicable methods to improve soil health in ways that work with nature.

Policy in action – Living mulch field lab

Clive Bailye, partner at TWB Farms in Staffordshire, moved to conservation agriculture 15 years ago. He is one of six farmers who’ve started a field lab looking into whether growing clover under cash crops can reduce or eliminate fertilisers and herbicides, by controlling weeds whilst also fixing nitrogen.

We have established no-till farming and we’ve stopped using insecticides, so what I’m hoping is that by using this clover understory to build fertility we will build even more healthy soil biology.

Looking ahead to 2021

Whilst we celebrate the successes of 2020 we also look to the challenges we face in the year ahead. 2021 will bring the Environment Bill and there is much work to be done to secure ambitious, legally binding targets for biodiversity, water, air quality, and waste.