Global soil degradation costs up to 10.6 trillion US dollars a year and poses a long-term threat to food security and the environment, according to a report published by the Sustainable Food Trust (SFT) in December. The report argues that soil degradation should be recognised alongside climate change as one of the most pressing problems facing humanity. Soil is a vital resource for food production that needs to be protected and enhanced, the report said. Instead, more than half (52%) of all fertile, food-producing soils globally are now classified as degraded, many of them severely, largely due to inappropriate farming methods. This reduces the ability of farmland to produce food at a time when more will be demanded of soils than ever before due to population increase and climate change, the authors warns. More than 95% of the food we eat depends on soil. “Few people think about soil when they do their shopping, in part because most root vegetables have all the soil washed off them these days, but the reality is that for every trolley of food we wheel back to our cars, we are tipping three trolleys full of the same weight of soil into the river to be washed away,” Sustainable Food Trust policy director Richard Young said in a press release. He argues that “urgent action is now needed to develop common solutions which address climate change and soil degradation simultaneously”. According to SFT, soil degradation is potentially reversible through planned ecosystem restoration and by introducing agricultural systems and practices that regenerate soil by building fertility and increasing biological activity and soil organic carbon. The report quotes farming practices such as crop-grassland rotation, hedgerow planting and animal manure application as methods to halt soil degradation and increase soil carbon. The report concludes that soil health should be given a central position in decisions made to combat climate change and that it needs to be recognised as a vital resource for the future of humanity. (ab)