Soil part 1: local stories and global contexts

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Soil part 1: local stories and global contexts

strawberry flower peeks out in #Cloughjordan allotments

I visited a friends's allotment in Clare recently. It was a gorgeous sunny day, and the gardens seemed abundant, almost teaming, with wildflowers and insects as we approached. There weren't that many allotments however - the space wasn't maximised, whatever about the undoubted benefits of insects. “There isn't much food growing going on here” I thought to myself, enjoying nevertheless the glory of it all.

When we went to clear a bed of weeds, I put my hands into the soil. It was incredible. Varying shades of black and brown, clumpy, rich, very deep soil. It was a joy to hold and behold. And so very different to my own fledgling allotment, however neat and tidy it is.

“This place 'as 'ad tonnes of farmyard manure” my mate told me in his Yorkshire accent. There weren't many actual allotments here, but the application of this amount of the good stuff had certainly paid off.

A lot of food will grow here after all.

the rather more flowerful east Clare allotment

Using organic growing techniques means using these and other inputs instead of fossil fuel dependent mineral fertilisers. Feeding the soil not (just) the plant has been a mantra of the organic movement for decades.

Globally, soil is a disappearing commodity, which has implications for our ability to feed ourselves.

Some global stats to fix the mind:

•Approximately 10 - 20% of drylands and 24% of the world’s productive lands are degraded.

•24 billion tonnes of fertile topsoil are lost every year.

•The UN FAO predicts that there are about 60 years of harvests left, using current practices: the global amount of productive land per person in 2050 will be only a quarter of the level in 1960.

And yet:

•A fully functioning soil can store 3750 tonnes of water per hectare

•Soils store more than 4000 billion tonnes of carbon. By way of comparison, the world's forests store our next blog posts on 360 billion tonnes of carbon

In our next blog post on this matter, we'll look at the specifics of Ireland: what does the Environmental Protection Agency say about Irish soil quality? We'll also talk to some of the presenters from the recent Soil Symposium - Soils Matter - in Galway.

That's our discussion regarding Soil part 1: local stories and global contexts

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