What you can say when marketing organic 2020 - Flipbook - Page 19
Why soil matters
• British soils are in crisis97
• Around 95% of food production relies on soil77
• Soil degradation in England and Wales costs £1.2
billion every year98
• Healthy topsoil is vital to our existence78
• Soils are home to a quarter of the Earth’s species79
• One gram (a quarter of a teaspoon) of soil may
harbour up to 10 billion micro-organisms (most
of which are still unexplored)80 81
• It takes 100 years for just 1-2cm of topsoil to
form, and soil that is lost to pollution or erosion
will need hundreds or even thousands of years to
recover on its own99
• One inch of soil takes over 500 years to form100
• Healthy soils absorb and store water - with the
help of soil organisms, organic matter and good
soil management82 83
• We are losing soil 10-40 times faster than
it’s formed101
• Soils store more carbon than the atmosphere, and
all of the world’s plants and forests combined,
which means that soil is one of our most important
weapons in the fight against climate change84
Organic is better for soil
• A single hectare of soil has the potential to store
and filter enough water for 1000 people for 1 year85
• UK soils store around 130 trillion litres of water more than contained in all UK lakes and
rivers combined86
• 10 billion tonnes of carbon is stored in UK soils87
• Soils store 65% of the world’s fresh water88
• Food security relies on sustainable soils89
Soil degradation
• Half of the topsoil on the planet has been lost in
the last 150 years90
Organic farming is based on nourishing the soil102
Organic farming is based on nourishing the
plants by building healthy soils103
Organic farming creates a healthy, living soil104 105
Organic farming builds soil fertility naturally106
using compost and clover
Natural, sustainable soil fertility is encouraged
through composting and crop rotation107 with
legumes to provide nitrogen, rather than energyhungry synthetic fertilisers108
• Healthy soils protect underground water
supplies by neutralising or filtering out potential
pollutants. Increasing soil organic matter levels
(through methods used by organic farmers)109
can improve this function110
• Globally we lose around 30 football pitches of
fertile soil a minute153
The following statements need to be used
along with one or more of the listed additional
qualifying statements:
• One UN official stated that we may have fewer
than 60 harvests left91
• Organic farming is better for the long-term
health of the soil111
• The world loses 24 billion tonnes of soil every year92
• Organic farms have healthier soils112
• Over the last 40 years, almost a third of the
world’s arable soils have been lost to erosion
or pollution93
QUALIFYING STATEMENTS:
• European farmland is being lost at an
unsustainable rate94
• Every year an area of fertile soil three times
the size of Switzerland (12 million hectares) is
lost globally95
• The UK has lost 84% of its fertile topsoil since 1850,
with erosion continuing at 1cm to 3cm a year96
• Organic farms have a more diverse range of
microbes living in the soil - this helps the crops to
grow without artificial fertilisers113 114
• Organic farmers use around 65% more manure
and compost – this nourishes the soil and keeps
it alive115
• Soil organic matter – the ‘living’ part of the soil –
is higher on organic farms116
• Organic soils have more earthworms117
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