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Research

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• Italy's prosecco boom is leading to dramatic soil erosion, scientific report claims, for every bottle of prosecco produced, 4.4kg (10lbs) of soil is lost

• A paper by Levi van Sant exploring the relationship between racial politics and soil surveys in the USA, first presented at the Soil Care Network workshop in 2017, has now been published

• Hopes for fighting AMR found in Irish soils as a new microbial species is discovered on a site traditionally associated with medical remedies, highlighting the importance of traditional knowledge to modern sciences

• New insights into the role of minerals in soil carbon storage

• Putting a damper on the hopes of carbon capture in soils, recent research suggests that the limit of Co2 absorption will soon be reached due to climate change related changes in soil moisture

• Researchers at the University of Plymouth in the UK are working with Cornwall’s Eden Project to explore how recycled and waste material could be transformed and reused in agriculture and other sectors

• Wageningen University is developing soil-less methods for growing bananas as the current global monoculture is being wiped out by a soil-borne pathogenic fungus.

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Policy and social movement

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• A very important read: a group of scientific, policy and industry stakeholders met to identify priorities for breaking through current barriers to reach a substantial positive impact on the global carbon balance in soils; there is an interesting focus on financing and payments for carbon sequestration

• The Campaign to Protect Rural England just published this report (and a moving webpage) on the need to Save our Soils

• An interesting commentary on the UK’s Soil Associations recent report to Defra on no-tillage approaches, in which they caution the government not to assume no-tillage is a silver bullet, and highlight the complexities and specificities of revitalising soils through a variety of mechanisms, including animal bodies

• McDonalds speaks up on the need to safeguard soils, signalling big business is starting to take the role of soils in their supply systems seriously

• The recent agenda-setting report by the National Farmers Union in the UK features soils quite strongly. Interestingly, it calls strongly for ‘more data’ and ‘more research’ as the basis for good soil management

• UN raises concerns about plastic pollution in soils

 

Soils in the news

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• Fertile soil is being smuggled out of Iran to “states of the Persian Gulf, particularly United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar (…) Iranian soil is used for building artificial islands in UAE, and drying up the sea in Qatar."

• Pilots start in the UK on paying farmers for changing land use towards ‘delivery of public goods’ as part of new rural environment payments after Brexit. This article interestingly shows the changing logic of ‘making money out of land’, and its problems (e.g. what happens when the weather ‘does not cooperate’)

• Another push towards replacing human labour in farming with robots – including soil sampling. A start-up company receives a prize for its soil-sampling robot.

• A company in Australia receives a large government grant to develop soil measurement and visualisation tools for farmers

• SoilCQuest in Australia is trialling carbon sequestration in soils with the help of a special fungus

• The NY Urban Soil Survey is gathering press attention and shining a light on the role of soils in the urban environment

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Editorials, blogs and opinion

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• A beautiful piece of meditation on soil, renewal, perseverance, and embodiment by the writer Sumana Roy

• An interesting insight into the challenge of connecting scientific advice and in-field action; I noted the persistent, and erroneous assumption that ‘access to information’ will drive change in the farming community

• The 4/1000 initiative spells out the 8 steps to increasing soil carbon needed to curb climate change in this important Nature editorial

• Is the future of farming soil-less? An interesting commentary; “the infrastructural costs of producing food entirely without soil will be enormous. It’s more likely we will land on a blended solution that combines highly engineered growing spaces and “under the sky” soil-based agriculture.”

• WWF also speaks up about soils as the foundation of ecosystems: “It’s probably the most important thing we never really think about.”

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Resources, boks

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• This mesmerising video shows the powerful effect of soil animals on organic matter decay.

• Global Soil Proverbs: Cultural Language of the Soil The International Union of Soil Sciences has published this book on soil proverbs worldwide. The objective of the book is to compile such soil proverbs and, through them, share insights about philosophy, culture, and life in each country, as they relate to soils. The book features 32 chapters from 29 different countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, and Oceania.