Soil is a neglected and vital issue. Can the House of Lords protect the UK soils where the House of Commons has so far failed?
… Soil on troubled waters Natalie Bennett | 26th October 2021 | Comment Soil Food And Farming House Of Lords Green … Party COP26 Editor’s Picks Climate Breakdown soilhands.jpg Soil is a neglected and vital …
Four trustees of the Soil Association just resigned, 'more in sorrow than in anger'. Joanna Blythman, Lynda Brown, Andrew Whitley and former Ecologist editor Pat Thomas all decided they were unable to contribute further to the organisation, the UK's leading organic certifier and the 'mother ship' of British organic farming.
… Soil Association must get back to its roots … leek-picking-cut.jpg Four trustees of the Soil Association just resigned, 'more in … farming. We expect fellow members of the Soil Association will wonder why we resigned. …
The state of our soils is an enormous threat to future food security - we need to fully embrace organic methods.
… 7168593663_1463c2b920_b.jpg The state of our soils is an enormous threat to future food … embrace organic methods. The Sustainable Soils Alliance recently hosted … shared an understanding of the importance of soil . But we need to be mindful of the …
We need to overhaul what we grow, and how and where we grow it, if we are to make the most of our land and fight climate change.
… Bennett | 10th January 2019 News Land Use Soil Association Food And Farming Wetlands … group Feedback asked colleagues from the Soil Association, Friends of the Earth, … for 10 percent of the total loss of soil in England from agricultural lands. Being …
The world’s mismanagement of the nitrogen cycle is 'our forgotten environmental crisis'.
… fungi and lichen. Shit It further means soil acidification and ozone depletion and … for many decades . There’s also impacts on soil structure that have only recently come to be understood. In healthy soils, with low levels of nitrogen, microbes …
Organic food is not necessarily the automatic choice for the ethical consumer
… Seasonal Ethical Farmers' Market Supermarket Soil Association Organics Consumerism Food … equivalent. I would point out that Soil Association organic standards represented … to factory farming. I take my hat off to the Soil Association for framing and focusing the …
How to make farming 'climate friendly' was one of the hot topics at COP22 in Marrakesh, writes Natalie Bennett, with two contrasting models on show: 'climate smart' agriculture, with its reliance on industrial farming systems; and agroecology, which works with nature to build fertile, high-carbon, moisture-retaining soils, and sustain employment for millions of skilled land workers.
… fertile, high-carbon, moisture-retaining soils, and sustain employment for millions of … industrial agriculture that's trashing our soils, drawing down fossil water supplies and … reduced the amount of carbon stored in the soil (as has clearing forests for arable …
'Science cannot be left in the hands of those who champion the multinational seed and agrochemical companies.'
… security through nutrition or genetics or soil science or agronomy (which crops grow … they’ll be sucking nutrients out of a drier soil. That will have an impact on the … microscopic organisms that make up a healthy soil and work synergistically with plants to …
Agroecological science must be at the centre of the Agriculture Bill.
… We do know that they are locked, in healthy soil, in an immensely productive, complex nutrient exchange system with plants, soil bacteria and other organisms. Indeed it … photosynthesis feed fungi and bacteria in the soil. You just need to look at the …
Europe must learn from Indonesia's restoration of its peatlands if we are to cut agricultural carbon emissions.
… impacts of human destruction of organic soils, and also the extreme depletion of … tonnes of carbon per hectare per year, as the soils dry out and degrade. Across the EU, 30 … emissions after Indonesia. Yet these are soils that are often productive for a few …
The law of unintended consequences is usually assumed to mean the best will in the world can still cause terrible harm. But the need to understand the causes of climate change is forcing societies to address other risks from industrial production, argues NATALIE BENNETT.
… thought. And even more than that, it damages soil health and fertility , by reducing the organic matter in the soil and the availability of organic nitrogen. … decades, indeed centuries, and destroying the soil , as industrial agriculture is doing, is …
Fighting global warming will take meaningful change - not business as usual.
… numbers , the contamination of waters and soils with pesticides and artificial … a variety of crops in rewetted organic soils is clearly essential, yet only just … - doing what we do now to trash our soils and wildlife slightly less badly - but …
Michael Gove's agriculture bill ignores the problems local farmers face in producing healthy and sustainable food, argues NATALIE BENNETT
… being managed a bit better for wildlife, soil and flood prevention, but not as the … that rely on nature, and particularly healthy soil, to produce the healthy food we need. … being managed a bit better for wildlife, soil and flood prevention, but not as the …
Amsterdam's Micropia museum has much to offer budding microbiologists - but is lacking a critical awareness of the commercial destruction and misuse of microscopic life. NATALIE BENNETT reports
… the crucial role of microscopic life in the soil – and the way we are trashing those … (one million organisms in a teaspoon of soil). A couple of giant models of tardigrades … fun as they are – do not an education about soil make. There’s also information about the …
Agroecology, plant-based diets and scathing critiques of REDD+ have reached the mainstream at this year’s climate talks, argues NATALIE BENNETT
… it. At its heart is the understanding that soil is the foundation of our survival on this … 1986. We need to move on to restoration – of soils, forests and corals. This is not about …
Weeds are destroying crops globally - but the real problem is Big Agriculture.
… COP, but gets little attention. The damage to soils is moderately well-known, the figure … that seeks to develop systems where soils, crops, other plants, wildlife and …
The latest food scare - the contamination of British eggs with the cancer causing chemical dioxin - can be linked to our reliance on complex food chains and industrial production methods, report Joanna Blythman and Tom Levitt
… modern animal feed supply chains (copyright: Soil Association) In the latest scare in …
More than 40 companies including Coca-Cola, Unilever and Tesco have pledged to eliminate single-use packaging items and to ensure 100 per cent of their plastic packaging is reusable, recyclable or compostable. But NATALIE BENNETT, former Green Party leader, argues this voluntary pact doesn't go far enough - a full scale ban is needed
… in existence - in our drinking water, our soils, our oceans, our animals and our air. …
As the supermarket doors glide open there they are – cosmetically perfect, irresistibly firm, brilliantly coloured fruit and vegetables. And yet, when you get them home, they taste of nothing. Is it the way you cooked them, or have you just selected badly? No, you’ve been conned.
… for green flags, because they might contain soil and need to be cleaned. The real reason … kiwis, Delizia tomatoes ‘grown in sandy soil to deliver [a] distinct, sweet flavour’, …
The economies of whole islands in the Caribbean face ruin if the WTO, acting at the behest of US-owned multinationals, forces the EU to end preferential trade agreements with small-scale West Indian banana producers
… are there for all to see: degradation of soil, and sick people. ‘Eighty per cent of …