Soil part 2: What does the EPA say about Soil Quality in Ireland?

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Soil part 2: What does the EPA say about Soil Quality in Ireland?

Soil quality is a hot topic this year, the UN International Year of the Soil.

Indeed Monday 6th saw a symposium on soil in Galway (part 1 of this article series), with speakers from the UK and Ireland addressing soil related issues.

In organic farming, building soil quality is a key practice, as organic farmers cannot reply some of the inputs at the disposal of conventional farmers.

While the global situation is stark, as outlined here last week, how relevant are these issues for Ireland?

With land use changes and the general intensification of farming, there are a number of threats to soil functionality relevant on this island.

While Irish soils are considered relatively good by international standards, concerns include decline in organic matter, erosion by wind and water, compaction, loss of soil biodiversity, contamination and landslides.

The Environmental Protection Agency – EPA – have expressed concern that peat extraction, energy crops , as well as ploughing rough or permanent grassland for tillage, impacts negatively on soil organic matter.

Maintaining soil organic matter is important for water and air quality, as well as for lowering our green house gas emissions (methane and nitrous oxide especially)

Soil erosion also impacts on water courses, leading to fish kills and eutrophication.

The EPA state: “Soil erosion occurs as a result of poor soil management practices on vulnerable soils including inappropriate cropping regimes, overgrazing, and direct access to watercourses”. They add: “serious incidents of soil erosion are localised but it is likely that climate change will cause increased rates of soil erosion due to higher rainfall intensity and possible loss of organic matter, which will result in reduced structural stability.”

Without abatement techniques, soil compaction will inevitably increase as animals and machinery get bigger and heavier, and as climate change ushers in more extreme and erratic weather patterns

Incredibly, according to the EPA “no comprehensive data are available on the severity or extent of soil compaction in Ireland.” It is thus highly unlikely that anything is being done to invest in researching abatement of soil compaction. And if there is work being done, it is being done in an information lacuna.

Water logging and flooding are more likely with soil compaction, while soil organic matter reduces with compaction too – all of which reduces the natural productivity of the land.

Diffuse contamination arises as a result of deposition from the atmosphere and activities such as agriculture, forestry, horticulture and landspreading of organic wastes.

The EPA also point to many practices, including (but not exclusively) agricultural practices which increase the likelihood of landslides and floods.

“Slope gradient and profile, soil drainage and permeability...heavy rainfall and changes in land use and land cover, and human activities such as excavations, undercutting and land drainage.”

Again many of these are interconnected and likely to worsen with climate change itself worsening.

Plans to ramp up production, as outlined in Food Wise 2025, will not reduce these stresses.

(For an excellent objective critique of Food Wise 2025 see here, and weep for how science and judicious editorialising are garnered in the name of industry.)

Bigger continental animals, bigger machinery, fewer hedgerows are just some of the inevitabilities of Food Wise 2025.

Already the stocking rates allowable under the Nitrates Directive were increased in 2013.

What are the organic farming responses to this situation? Next post, organic farmers and growers Pat Lalor (cereal, beef) Jim Cronin (horticulture) and Klaus Laitenberger (training, horticulture), all of whom spoke at the Soil Symposium, will give us their views.

These three experts, growing for many years in Westmeath, Clare and Leitrim respectively, will deal with soil on the organic farm, as well as the wider applicability of organic techniques on conventional farms and for society in general.

(note: EPA website is being updated, so links to original document will be forthcoming presently)

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