The government’s Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) has given cross-party support for vital action to save soils.

In a new report, which also touches on the impacts of government cuts on cleaning up brownfield sites, after Defra withdrew capital grants funding for restoring sites contaminated with toxic elements, MPs warn that soil health isn’t given the same attention as other areas of pollution. The MPs warn that the government isn’t doing enough to safeguard soils.

Soil experts classify soils as a non-renewable resource, as it takes hundreds or even thousands of years to form just a few centimetres of topsoil, and yet in 2014 the EU Commission withdrew a proposed framework to protect soils in the EU; the Soil Directive had been stalled at the draft stage by a blocking minority of member state governments, including the UK’s, and the NFU had lobbied heavily against the adoption of the directive, which would have brought soil protection into line with other non-renewable resources.

On Thursday, Environmental Audit Committee Chair Mary Creagh said, “Soil is a Cinderella environmental issue. It doesn’t receive as much attention as air pollution, water quality or climate change. But, whether we realise it or not, society relies on healthy soil for the food we eat, for flood prevention, and for storing carbon. The Government says it wants our soil to be managed sustainably by 2030, but there is no evidence that it is putting in place the policies to make this happen.”

In its report, the Committee of MPs warns that the UK's arable soils have seen a worrying decline in carbon levels since the late 70s, with widespread and ongoing decline in peat soil carbon. Soil is a massive carbon sink - storing three times as much carbon as the atmosphere - so the degradation of soils can release carbon, contributing to climate change. Publishing the report on Thursday, MPs urged government to set out specific, measurable and time-limited plans to increase the amount of carbon retained in soil, to help meet the plans it signed up to at the Paris climate summit last December, and said government monitoring of soil heath must be better, rather than the “ad-hock approach to conducting surveys” currently employed.

Mary Creagh MP added, “Soil degradation could mean that some of our most productive agricultural land becomes unprofitable within a generation. Every tonne of carbon we can retain in soil will help us meet our carbon budgets and slow climate change. The government wants to see all soils managed sustainably by 2030, but their current actions will not be enough to reach that goal.”

Agricultural soil protection too weak to work

The Government relies on rules linked to farm subsidy payments to regulate agricultural soil health, but the EAC report finds these are too weak, too loosely enforced, and focus only on preventing further damage to soil rather than encouraging restoration and improvement. The Committee demands rules with greater scope, force and ambition are required in order to meet the Government's stated goal to manage soils sustainably by 2030.

Echoing concerns aired by environmentalists in recent years, the EAC also cautions that “Maize production can damage soil health when managed incorrectly, and incentives for anaerobic digestion should be structured to reflect this. The double subsidy for maize produced for anaerobic digestion is counterproductive and has contributed to the increase in land used for maize production.”

The report criticises the current subsidy regime, stating in its report that better joined-up thinking is needed to ensure soils are managed sustainably. The Committee has urged Defra to include a soil focus in its long-awaited 25 year plan on food and farming, set for publication this year. The EAC report concludes “Defra must also ensure that its accompanying 25-year plan for food and farming does not sit in tension with its environment plan. We must move away from viewing soil merely as a growth medium and treat it as an ecosystem in its own right.”

Touching on the fate of the abandoned Soil Directive, the MPs add, “As well as taking national action, the Government should remain open to action on a European level to ensure soil protection.”

Reacting upon the report’s publication, Soil Association policy director Peter Melchett said, “The Soil Association is delighted by the all-party Environmental Audit Committee’s groundbreaking report on soil.  Despite us relying on a thin, vulnerable and deteriorating layer of soil for most of our food, this is the first all-party parliamentary committee enquiry into soil that we know of. The Soil Association believes there are three key areas for action needed to save our soils – a clear target for increasing soil organic matter, protecting lowland peat, and ending the destructive effects of maize.  All of these have all been endorsed by the Committee.”

The government said its forthcoming 25 year strategy will set out a “Long-term vision to protect and enhance our natural environment for generations to come.”

However, Prof. John Quinton, Professor of Soil Science at Lancaster University, agreed with the EAC, commenting, “The Environmental Audit  Committee are right to highlight the role of maize in degrading soils when it is grown on unsuitable conditions, but it is also important to highlight the need for adopting soil conservation practices when growing other high water erosion risk crops e.g. potatoes, outdoor pigs  and sugar beet. The role of tillage in degrading soils on slopes and wind eroding soils appear to have been missed by the committee.

“Halting carbon loss in soils and attempting to meet the target of 0.4% increase year on year makes absolute sense from a soil quality and climate change perspective. Even a small increase in soil carbon will take significant amounts of carbon out of the atmosphere.

“An effective monitoring system, as proposed by the Environment Audit committee, would allow the government to  assess the success or failure of soil protection policies. It’s hard to understand how the government will know if it has reached its target for sustainable soil management by 2030 without one.”