December 5th marks World Soil Day, an international day to celebrate the importance of soil.
World Soil Day 2022 (#WorldSoilDay), and its campaign “Soils: Where food begins”, aims to raise
awareness of the importance of maintaining healthy ecosystems. Addressing the growing challenges in soil management, increasing soil awareness, and encouraging societies to improve soil health will lead to greater human well being.
In recognition of this day, we thought we’d give you some facts on soil:
- Soil is a living system, each gram containing millions of organisms: earthworms, mites, insects, bacteria and more.
- Only about 1% of soil micro-organisms have been identified; it remains a frontier for exploration.
- Soils process recycled nutrients, such as carbon, so that living things can use them over and over.
- The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN estimated that 33% of soil is moderately to highly degraded through processes such as erosion, chemical pollution and nutrient depletion. This is turn decreases the soil’s function and affects food production.
- Soil that is not covered with vegetative matter is vulnerable and is being washed away 10-40 times faster than it is being replenished.
- The mismanagement of soil has contributed to climate change. With 50-70% of the worlds soils original carbon stock being lost, most of which has been released into the atmosphere as Carbon Dioxide.
The health of our soil is degrading because of a loss of these nutrients. This is recognized as a critical problem, at the global level, for food security and sustainability across the globe.
Over the last 70 years, the level of vitamins and nutrients in food has drastically decreased, and it is estimated that 2 billion people worldwide suffer from lack of micronutrients.
Managing the soils health through regenerative farming practices will increase the health of the soil creating greater yields and sustainability.
It is essential to make the world aware of what is happening so together so we can start to take the right action.
Bronwyn Reid | December 2022