Future of Food depends on vibrant living soils
Caroline Corsie - 09 February 2011
Caroline Corsie: It was great to hear Helen draw attention to this in her opening remarks. Simple 3rd Law of Thermodynamics in that energy can only pass from hot to cold! There’s something about promoting the organic message to conventional farmers. Perhaps to do this the Soil Association could hypothesise how the likes of Nocton might sit in as part of a range of farming systems (e.g. might it free up land for wildlife, rebuilding soil health).
The Foresight report comments on sustainable intensive farming, what might this look like? Could organic principles be of benefit in terms of soil management? Encourage more farmers to consider part farm organic (we are doing this at Worcestershire Wildlife Trust and focussing on soil health)… they might lose less money focussing on this approach for now that growing commodity crops (especially on the smaller farms).
How long does it take sterile soils to recover? The Earthworm! All farmers should hold the same reverence for this species and soil organic matter. Most of our wildlife has direct links to soil invertebrates (buzzard, thrushes, moles, robins, centipedes, ants, badgers, small mammals to name just a few earthworm eaters!) 80% of England is farmed land. It doesn’t take much mathematics to figure the root of biodiversity declines….. The lack of earthworms!
Comments
John Walker
09 February 2011 20:22
p.s. Caroline, thanks for blogging!
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John Walker
09 February 2011 20:21
What's to hypothesise about the Nocton project? Are you suggesting we free up land for wildlife and rebuild soil health while countless animals suffer through intensive factory farming? Surely it's better to change diets through education so we don't need so much milk. We hear a lot about how eating less but high quality organic meat is the way to go, so what's wrong with eating less but high quality organic milk and making the notion of Nocton redundant?
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