NOV 25, 2013: Soil degradation is the biggest potential disaster facing us all, says Soil Association president Monty Don.
At the recent Soil Association’s annual conference, president Monty Don said: “If we are to feed the world, we must have good soil. As a soil scientist said to me only last week, we have reached ‘peak soil’ and we can’t produce any more.” Soil Association policy director Peter Melchett added: “Following the EU decision to drop their proposed European legislation to protect soils, partly at the insistence of the UK Government, the Soil Association is calling on Owen Paterson to say what he will do to stop the extraordinarily high rate of loss of UK soils on which all of our food production depends. “The latest major UK soil study, conducted in 2009, found that food production is being jeopardised by the loss of two million tonnes of topsoil each year. The health of our soil is too important to leave to chance. The EU directive that the UK Government has blocked would have led to co-ordinated action to protect and improve soils across the EU. Now it is up to the UK Government to take action.”NEW SERIES ON SECRETS OF SOIL: Starting in the January issue of CS
