Just weeks after the government’s Environment Audit Committee (EAC) published its report on soil health - with the committee of MPs recommending action to preserve soil health to protect the environment and ensure food security - a second report has taken a critical look at the government’s track record on soil protection.

On 2nd June, the EAC released a report on soil health, in which cross-party MPs warned that soil is a “Cinderella issue” in the UK - one that is hugely important, but receives comparatively little attention compared to water or air pollution. MPs looked at the impact of government cuts on soil protection measures and warned that the government is not on course to meet commitments ministers agreed to as part of the Paris climate talks last year.

On Monday, the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Agroecology issued its own report, which echoes the EAC’s concerns that soils - which are considered a non-renewable resource, as topsoils take thousands of years to build up - are being overlooked by policy makers. The APPG warns that “Although 95 per cent of our food comes from the soil, the political agenda does not reflect this and current policy is insufficient in protecting soil for future generations.”

The APPG Agroecology report follows an inquiry into soil health conducted over 2015/16. Cross-party MPs and Peers in the Group heard evidence from the NFU, Rothamsted Research Institute, the Soil Association and Cranfield University among others as part of their investigation.
One step recommended by the group is to use measures within Pillar 2 of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) to incentivise farmers to improve soil organic matter with initiatives, such as crop diversification and agroforestry (returning trees to the farmed landscape to play a role in farm systems, often providing two streams of income from the same land). They echoed the EAC in calling for landowner incentives to restore soil quality to help mitigate against flooding, saying this would help bolster “natural barriers to help minimize damage from the increasing number of floods battering the UK.”

The Parliamentary group made some general recommendations including:

• Incorporating soils into the government’s overall climate change strategy, as damaged soils emit greenhouse gasses and healthy sits can form a large carbon sink. The APPG report warns that “government policy does not go far enough to preserve soil quality and current incremental plans to improve agricultural performance are far from sufficient”;
• Making moves to improve knowledge around soil science and health. The report authors note “It is not possible to study soil science below postgraduate level, often making soil the most neglected component of land use;”
• Ensuring more comprehensive assessment and testing of soils - the APPG said the lack of a complete picture on soil health will hamper the government’s commitment to ensure soils are ‘managed sustainably’ by 2030;
• Championing sustainable farming methods. The group called for government farm policy to favour more environmentally friendly, extensive farming over intensive systems and noted that “maize crops for energy use are often proving to be implicated in soil compaction and flooding,” an area which has come under intense scrutiny in recent weeks.

Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer, who led the inquiry panel, commented, “Healthy soil is vital both here and around the world. Failure to tackle current problems will lead to catastrophic environmental, economic and social breakdown. Reversing the loss of soils, along with restoring knowledge and interest in soil, are essential first steps to sustainable food production.”

On Monday, Georgia Farnsworth, policy officer at the Soil Association welcomed the report’s findings, saying, “The Soil Association is particularly pleased that our evidence to the APPG into the need to protect our soils have been agreed, especially from the negative impacts of growing maize, which were highlighted in this report as well as by the EAC and in the recent DECC consultation. The APPG report also concluded that the subsidy regime for AD maize needs to be urgently reviewed.
 
“We must continue to ensure soil is rooted at the top of the political agenda. Farmers need the right advice and best practice guidelines for improving soil organic matter and reversing the dramatic loss of agricultural soil that has devastated the nation in recent flooding. This is something the Soil Association has outlined in our recent 7 Ways to Save our Soils report.”