News • Sustainable Farming Campaign
Sustainable Soils Alliance welcomes recognition of soil as "natural capital"
The Sustainable Soils Alliance has welcomed the government's recognition in its 25 Year Environment Plan that soil is a pillar of natural capital alongside air and water, and that all three are fundamental for our country’s long-term economic growth and productivity.
The Sustainable Soils Alliance suggests that this is the first time that that soil health has enjoyed such focus in a government strategy, for which they give credit to the Environmental Audit Committee’s 2016 Enquiry on Soil Health which moved the issue up the political agenda.
The authors of a new submission to the Environmental Audit Committee in February 2018 state that Defra's 25-Year Environment Plan "is a potential watershed moment and might be instrumental in helping achieve the Sustainable Soils Alliance’s own objective to drive the restoration of soils to health within a generation. However there are areas where further attention is needed, many of which reflect the areas of concern highlighted in the Sustainable Soil Alliance’s eight point Call to Action, published earlier this year. We urge the committee to consider these as it holds the government to account and ensures that a promising document is translated into genuine, impactful action."
The Sustainable Soils Alliance calls for:
- Long-term strategy
- Economic evaluation
- Monitoring
- Pollutant reduction
- Measures
- Innovation and tools
- Education and training
- Collaboration
Read the full submission at: https://sustainablesoils.org/eac-inquiry-25yep-submission-1/
Published Tuesday 6 March 2018
Sustainable Farming Campaign: Sustain encourages integration of sustainable food and farming into local, regional and national government policies.
