Anybody who's touched soil with their bare hands could have told you that without earthworms the soil is no good. That the absence of earthworms is a telltale of poisoned or poor soil quality.
But I'm glad the contribution of earthworms to agriculture has been estimated. Imagine inventing a new method to increase crop yield by 6.5% to 10%: you'd be deemed a hero. For earthworms that's just their way of life.
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The world has lost a third of its arable land due to erosion or pollution in the past 40 years, with potentially disastrous consequences as global demand for food soars, scientists have warned.
The continual ploughing of fields, combined with heavy use of fertilizers, has degraded soils across the world, the research found, with erosion occurring at a pace of up to 100 times greater than the rate of soil formation.
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Fertile soil is being lost at a rate of 24bn tonnes a year.
Heavy tilling, multiple harvests and abundant use of agrochemicals have increased yields at the expense of long-term sustainability. In the past 20 years, agricultural production has increased threefold and the amount of irrigated land has doubled. Over time, however, this diminishes fertility and can lead to abandonment of land and ultimately desertification.
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Industrial pollution, mining, farming and poor waste management are poisoning soils.
Pollutants include metals, cyanides, DDT and other pesticides, and long-lasting organic chemicals such as PCBs, making food and water unsafe, cutting the productivity of fields and harming wildlife.
The global production of industrial chemicals each year has doubled since 2000 to 2.3bn tonnes, and is projected to nearly double again by 2030.
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A few more photos from our final day touring Alberta to study soil health. We spent the morning at the Olds College of Agriculture and Technology, learning about smart farming and precision agriculture. Then we visited rancher Doug Wray, near Irricana, who is at the “bleeding edge” of regenerative ag innovation in Alberta. #SenateofCanada#AGFO#Calgary#Alberta#soil#soilhealth#regenerativeagriculture#OldsCollege
Allow me to share a few photos from our Senate agriculture committee tour of southern Alberta today. This morning, we visited the South Porcupine Ranch near Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, and Kevin Auch’s dry land pulse farm near Carmengay, to learn about their regenerative farming practices. What a privilege. #SenateofCanada#AGFO#Alberta#cdnpoli#soil#SoilHealth#regenerativeagriculture
Our Senate soil study continues, with literal field trips. On Monday, we visited the Kernan Research Farm at the University of Saskatchewan, where the Dean of Agriculture, Dr. Angela Bédard-Haughn, spoke to us about the uniqueness of prairie soils, the legacy of glaciation, and the importance of native grasslands. #AGFO#SenateofCanada#Saskatoon#UniversityofSaskatchewan#soil#soilhealth#saskatchewan
“We’re starting to realize that we’ve really messed up our soils at a global scale" ... is not really what one wants to hear, but it does not surprise given the extent of fertilizer, herbicide, and pesticide use, in addition to antibiotics and purines from animal farm waste, emissions from burning fossil fuels and rubber particles in the waters from car brake pads and tyres.
New study calculates that about 59% of species on Earth rely on #soil for one or more stages of their life. That figure is a steep change from the only previous general estimate of about a quarter of all animals.
“We’re starting to realize that we’ve really messed up our soils at a global scale.” says one of the study's authors.
"Maine last month became the first state to ban the practice of spreading PFAS-contaminated sewage sludge as fertilizer.
"But it’s largely on its own in the US, despite a recent report estimating about 20m acres of cropland across the country may be contaminated.
"Most states are only beginning to look at the problem and some are increasing the amount of sludge they spread on farm fields despite the substance being universally contaminated with PFAS and destroying livelihoods in Maine.
"'Maine is at the forefront of this because we’ve seen first-hand the damage that sludge causes to farms,' said Patrick MacRoy, deputy director of the non-profit Defend Our Health Maine. The new law also prohibits sludge from being composted with other organic material.
"PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a class of chemicals used across dozens of industries to make products resistant to water, stains and heat. Though the compounds are highly effective, they are also linked to #cancer, #KidneyDisease, #BirthDefects, decreased #immunity, #liver problems and a range of other serious diseases.
"Sewage sludge is a semi-solid mix of human excrement and industrial #waste that water treatment plants pull from the nation’s sewer system. It’s expensive to dispose of, and about 60% of it is now lightly treated and sold or given away as 'biosolid' fertilizer because it is high in plant nutrients.
"Maine and #Michigan are the only two states that are routinely checking sludge and farms for PFAS, and both are finding contamination on farms to be widespread.
"Maine’s legislature banned the practice of spreading sludge as fertilizer in April [2022] after environmental officials discovered astronomical levels of PFAS in water, crops, cattle and soil on farms where sludge had been spread, and high PFAS levels have been detected in farmers’ blood.
"#Contamination from PFAS-tainted sludge has already poisoned well water on around a dozen farms, and has forced several Maine farms to shutter. The state is investigating about 700 more fields where PFAS-contaminated sludge was spread in recent years. Farmers have told the Guardian that many of their peers with contaminated land won’t alert the state because they fear financial ruin.
"Maine also approved the creation of a $60m fund that will be used to help farmers cover medical monitoring, for buyouts and for other forms of financial assistance.
"'Folks have been left out to dry without any real help so we’re grateful to see that,' MacRoy said. The sludge legislation comes after Maine last year enacted the nation’s first ban on non-essential uses of PFAS in products. It goes into effect in 2030.
"In Michigan, environmental officials have downplayed the detection of PFAS in sludge and on farms, and although the state prohibits highly contaminated sludge from being spread, it allows higher levels of the chemicals in sludge than Maine. State regulators have also identified PFAS polluters and required them to stop discharging the chemicals into the sewers.
"Questions remain about whether that’s enough to keep PFAS out of Michigan’s food supply. Instead of implementing a wide-scale program to test livestock, crops and dairy, the state identified 13 farms it considered most at risk and has claimed contamination on other farms isn’t a risk.
"Michigan is ahead of most other states. In #Virginia, environmental regulators are considering permitting an additional 6,000 acres worth of sludge to be spread and have so far resisted public health advocates’ calls to test for PFAS and reject new sludge permits.
"In #Alabama, the state’s department of environmental management said in 2019 that 'the best use of biosolids is as a [fertilizer].'
"Even as the crisis unfolds in Maine, officials in Alabama are increasing the amount of out-of-state sludge that’s imported and spread on fields or landfilled, and the state in 2020 updated its biosolids rule to 'encourage' the use of #biosolids as fertilizer. Alabama does not test sludge for PFAS."
Men are becoming a foe for biodiversity. We are disrupting their environment and barely care about it.
It is essential to change our approach to the way we grow food.
We should feed the soil first. By doing this we feed the biodiversity of the soil and in exchange, they provide us with the nutrients to grow our food.
Doing compost and always covering the soil will achieve a reliant soil.
I discovered these lovely little soil-based watercolors by The Art of Soil last week—I love the story behind them, and a soil scientist making soil paints is the epitome of #SciArt is it not?? 😍 Looking forward to trying them out, will report back!
"Preston said many Canadian farmers are eager to adopt more sustainable means of production, but they need government support. Improving #soil health to make it more resilient to extreme rainfall, and increasing #biodiversity on farms, he said, will go a long way in adapting to a warming planet."
Soils are warming fast, contributing to crop failures.
"The Earth is heating up, and not just its atmosphere and oceans. The #soil itself is getting warmer, too, leading to more #ExtremeSoilHeat around the planet – along with unclear but ominous consequences for surface dwellers like us.
They found the number of days with heat extremes is increasing twice as quickly in the soil as it is in the air."
Scientists sound the alarm over dramatic loss of 3 billion #birds in #NorthAmerica: ‘We’re watching … #extinction happen’
Story by Brittany Davies, July 14, 2023
"Since the 1970s, bird enthusiasts have watched the skies empty and heard the #birdsongs go silent as nearly 3 billion birds vanished in North America. Disturbed by the findings of an expansive body of research, scientists across the globe are sounding the alarm as half of the world’s bird populations are in decline.
"Found in every corner of the world from the snowy tundra of the #Arctic to the lush rainforests of the #Amazon, birds play a critical role in maintaining the delicate balance of their #ecosystems. Robust and diverse bird populations advance #pollination, help transport #seeds, and fertilize the #soil with their droppings.
"Observing and cataloging these fascinating creatures has long been a popular hobby and an important source of data for researchers and conservationists. Thanks in part to #CitizenScience reporting sites such as eBird, researchers have collected a wealth of information documenting the troubling decline of bird populations on nearly every continent.
"Peter Marra, a conservation biologist and dean of Georgetown University’s #EarthCommons Institute, and his colleagues studied multiple bird-monitoring datasets and found a disturbing trend. Using different methods to estimate population changes, Marra told Knowable Magazine, 'they all told us the same thing, which was that we’re watching the process of extinction happen.'"
However, the article goes on to say:
"Although the situation may seem dire, the news is not all bad. The tireless work of conservationists has restored numerous bird species from the edge of extinction, and populations of wetland species are increasing due in part to political action to protect their habitats. These stories of hope show that it is not impossible to reverse the decline.
"In addition to supporting wide-scale change and devoting resources to protecting #CriticalHabitats, restoring the bird population can begin in your local community and even your own #backyard. Take action at home by creating a #BirdSanctuary by growing #NativePlants and providing safe spaces for birds to eat, rest, and reproduce. Join a birding organization and participate in bird data collection.
"The knowledge shared across important crowd-sourced databases provides essential information to researchers on the state of birds."
A process for delivering nutrients for crop growth that its developers say is more sustainable than most fertilizer methods today received a U.S. patent.
I had always known of adding sand to clay soil to lighten it, but had never done it because of not having clay soil. Now I do and so I went to look up about improving it and I found a whole lot of places saying don't add sand or it will get a hard crust and be worse. So I thought maybe this was new knowledge so I didn't add sand but organic material instead.