Lily Cole Instagram – Dirty Talk. A square meter of soil contains hundreds of thousands of species. And soils contain three times more carbon than all the carbon in living plants and animals. Let that sink in.
Yet we are squandering the life of the soil through harmful agricultural systems that take nearly half of habitable earth. Flip the paradigm to support better forms of agriculture (such as regenerative, organic, agro-ecological) and we could see that half of the earth thrive.
For many decades we have normalised chemical warfare on our soils through industrial agriculture ~ which deploys the same chemical technology that spawned the advent of explosives and poison gasses in World War 1.
It has been estimated that less than 0.1% of the pesticides applied to crops reach the targeted ‘pest’; the rest enter the environment, contaminating water, soil and air, and driving biodiversity loss across insects, birds, bats, fish, amphibians, and other populations. Meanwhile, the UN reports that 90 per cent of the Earth’s topsoil is likely to be at risk by 2050.
‘Can mankind regulate its affairs so that its chief possession – the fertility of the soil – is preserved? On the answer to this question the future of civilisation depends,’ wrote botanist Albert Howard in 1940. When it comes to soil, ‘it is difficult to overstate the urgency of the crisis,’ writes Merlin Sheldrake.
What to do? Of course when we think about soil health we can consider composting, growing, gardening, getting our fingernails dirty… but we are also impacting soil every day through the purchasing choices we make and the methods of agriculture those choices support. The farms behind food, fashion, beauty, skin care.
This is why I am supporting #SaveEarthsSkin campaign from biodynamic skincare @weledauk – who are working with @marieclaireuk @dirt.charity 🍂
‘The way we feed ourselves is the most direct and intimate aspect of our relationship to nature,’ writes Aurora Solá in Manifesto on the Future of Food. ‘Today that relationship is dangerously extractive. But if we flip that relationship, turning agriculture into a life-generating enterprise, then the entire train of human destiny will be turned around.’ 🌀 | Posted on 23/Apr/2024 02:40:15
