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Beneath our feet lies one of the most complex ecosystems on Earth. Teeming with microbes, fungi, earthworms, insects and the extensive root systems of plants, soil is estimated to be home to more than half of the planet’s biodiversity. It holds nearly 80% of the total carbon found in terrestrial ecosystems – but it’s in trouble. Thanks to deforestation, intensive agriculture, urbanization, and pollution, around a third of the world’s soil is degraded. Experts predict this could increase to 90% by 2050, with potentially catastrophic consequences for food production, the environment, and climate change.
Some farmers are well aware of what’s at stake – and are taking action. Soil health, and its associated benefits, has long been something of an obsession at Yeo Valley Organic. The dairy brand, which sources its milk from 100 farms in the south and west of England, first sampled the soil on 162 hectares (400 acres) of its own land in 2015. It followed up with a major project to test the soil at 25 of its supplier farms. Sampling more than 6,070 hectares, (15,000 acres), it tested for nutrients, pH, organic matter, and carbon. It also analyzed the soil’s structure and counted the number of worms, a key indicator of soil health.
The brand is now rolling out soil testing across all of its suppliers, with repeat sampling taken at five-yearly intervals. The idea is to create a rich and rigorous data set on which to base decisions around crop rotations, grazing schedules, and more. Yeo Valley Organic practices regenerative agriculture, a holistic farming method where food is produced under a set of principles that prioritize nature recovery. By minimizing disturbance to the soil, protecting it with cover crops, keeping living roots in the soil, cultivating a wide range of species, and using grazing animals to feed the soil with their manure, soil resilience is boosted. And so arise all kinds of benefits, from biodiversity to improved water quality, and from higher rates of carbon sequestration to flood mitigation.
More and more UK farmers are seeking to understand how their land could benefit from regenerative agriculture, says Liz Bowles, chief executive of Farm Carbon Toolkit, a social enterprise that supports farmers to produce food within climate and nature-positive systems. “Our climate is going to change more … and it will become critical that we as farmers look after the ecosystems that we rely on – soil, water, air, and habitat.” That thinking resounds with Sophie Alexander, a supplier of milk to Yeo Valley Organic, who oversees 1,200 acres of arable land at Hemsworth Farm in Dorset, and is working with the brand on soil testing
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