World's Soils Becoming Endangered
Enhancing soil health through techniques like regenerative agriculture
There is no life without soil, and yet the world’s soils are becoming endangered. This reality needs to be part of our collective awareness, particularly when food production needs to increase 50% to 60% by 2050, said experts meeting in Reykjavík, Iceland.
The dirt beneath our feet is a magical world filled with tiny, wondrous creatures. A mere handful of soil might contain a half million different species including ants, earthworms, fungi, bacteria, and other microorganisms. Soil provides nearly all of our food – only a small percentage of our calories come from the oceans.
Soil also gives life to all of the world’s plants that supply us with much of our oxygen, another important ecosystem service. Soil cleans water, keeps contaminants out of streams and lakes, and prevents flooding. Soil can also absorb huge amounts of carbon, second only to the oceans.
“It takes half a millennia to build two centimetres of living soil and only seconds to destroy it,” said Anne Glover, chief scientific adviser to the European Commission.
Each year, 12 million hectares of land, where 20 million tonnes of grain could have been grown, are lost to land degradation. In the past 40 years, 30 percent of the planet’s arable (food-producing) land has become unproductive due to erosion. Unless this trend is reversed soon, feeding the world’s growing population will be impossible.
UPDATE:
More than 75% of the Earth’s land areas have lost some or most of their functions, undermining the well-being of the 3.2 billion people, according to the world’s first comprehensive evidence-based assessment of land degradation first released in 2018.
These once-productive lands have either become deserts, are polluted, or have been deforested and converted for unsustainable agricultural production.
“Iceland overexploited its lands, trying to squeeze more out of the land than it could handle. We call it ‘killing the milk cow’,” said Guðmundur Halldórsson, a research co-ordinator at the Soil Conservation Service of Iceland.
“We can no longer live off the land as we once did.”
Situated in the North Atlantic, Iceland was once mostly covered by forests, lush meadows, and wetlands when the first settlers arrived nearly 1,000 years ago. By the late 1800s, 96% of the forest was gone, and half the grasslands were destroyed by overgrazing. Iceland became one the world’s poorest countries, its people starved and its landscape has been described as Europe’s largest desert.
Of necessity, Iceland pioneered techniques to halt land degradation and promote restoration. For more than 100 years, the Soil Conservation Service has struggled – but the gains are small and very slow in coming. Today at least half of the former forests and grasslands are mostly bare and subject to severe erosion by strong winds.
Modern Iceland relies far less on agriculture and the harsh lessons of poor land management have been forgotten, Halldórsson told me.
A big part of reversing soil decline is the use of carbon, the same element that is overheating the planet.
When a plant grows, it takes carbon dioxide (CO2) out of the atmosphere and releases oxygen. The more of a crop – maize, soy or vegetable – that remains after harvest, the more carbon is returned to the soil. This carbon is mainly found in humus – the rich organic material from the decay of plant material. Soil needs to contain just 1.5 percent carbon to be healthy and resilient – that is, more capable of withstanding drought and other harsh conditions.
“Healthy soils equals healthy crops, healthy livestock and healthy people,” said Rattan Lal of Ohio State University.
However, most soils suffer from 30% to 60% loss in soil carbon. “Soils are like a bank account. You should only draw out what you put in. Soils are badly overdrawn in most places,” he told me.
Plowing, removal of crop residues after harvest, and overgrazing all leave soil naked and vulnerable to wind and rain, resulting in gradual, often unnoticed erosion of soil. This is like tire wear on your car – unless given the attention and respect it deserves, catastrophe is only a matter of time.
Erosion also puts carbon into the air contributing to climate change. But with good agricultural practices such as using seed drills instead of plows, planting cover crops, and leaving crop residues, soils can go from a carbon source to a carbon solution, said Lal.
The key is to adopt practices that enhance soil health to improve food productivity, says Halldórsson.
Enhancing soil health through techniques like regenerative agriculture can help improve local livelihoods, protect water resources, improve biodiversity, reduce erosion, and help put carbon back into the ground where it belongs, he said.
This is based on my 2013 article where I spent 10 days in Iceland researching the topic. First published for IPS, the largest news service for the Global South.
Until next time.
Stephen
Even more important in 2023 than 2013! Thanks Stephen Leahy! Humanity might do the right thing yet.