Green

Time to Talk About Soil

September 7, 2017

Time to Talk About Soil with People 4 Soil

People 4 Soil

It’s not often I reach out and ask people to sign a petition but time has almost run out for Ireland to register 8,250 signatures for the European People 4 Soil campaign and we’ve still a way to go to reach that target.

The campaign that launched a year ago is calling for the European Union to create a soil directive, similar to the air and water directives. If successful the Irish government would have to assess the condition of the soil beneath our fields and feet and take action where needed. Soil, the foundation of our existence, is currently unprotected.

If 1 million signatures are received from at least 7 member European states by mid September, the European Commission will have to react within three months. Can we do it? With your help yes, but please click the button below and share the petition with your friends, families and colleagues today.

Time to Talk About Soil with People 4 Soil

What is soil?

Soil has been described as the skin of the earth and it’s incredible to consider that without this shallow layer, life on this earth as we know it would not exist. Formed slowly from thousands of years of physical and biological processes, soil provides a habitat for billions of living things. Soil holds and purifies water, it processes and stores carbon and it acts as a medium for plant growth.

Every teaspoon of soil is full of living organisms. Just 1 gram can hold up to a billion bacteria, nematodes, protozoa and fungal filaments. It’s not simply dirt, soil is alive! When we understand that we begin to understand why artificial fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides are so damaging to it, why it’s so important that we protect soil from erosion, and why we continue to study and educate people about it.

Time to Talk About Soil with People 4 Soil

This clip from David R Mongomery explains how important the symbiosis between plants and the hidden mycorrhizae living beneath us is to soil fertility, plant health and subsequently our own health.

David R. Montgomery on Symbioses in the Soil from Center for Food Safety on Vimeo.

Soil History

Recently I was gifted a beautiful 1946 revised edition of “The Living Soil – evidence of the importance to human health of soil vitality’ by E.B. Balfour. Within the book the author quotes Professor N. S. Shaler of Harvard University who in 1896 wrote:

“If mankind cannot devise and enforce ways of dealing the with earth, which will preserve the source of life, we must look forward to a time – remote it may be, yet clearly discernible – when our kind, having wasted its great inheritance, will fade from the earth because of the ruin it has accomplished.”

Yet here we are, over 120 years later, still not protecting the very substance we came from and one day will return to. Soil is the mother of all things. Please honour and protect her.

You can read more about the People 4 Soil campaign here.

 

1 Comment

  • Reply William January 10, 2018 at 9:35 am

    This was really interesting. Great info graphic, I may have to print it out and stick it in the shed.

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