Opinion: Soil matters. Charting a path forward

The following is an excerpt from a statement made by the author to the Standing Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry (Status on Soil Health in Canada) meeting, Sept. 22.

Since the Senate of Canada “Soil At Risk” report was conceived by Senator Herb Sparrow four decades ago, generally soil management has improved and crop yield increased. 

However, our work is far from completed.

Loss of food land to non-agricultural development has grown to 6.37 million hectares (15.7 million acres) of our best land since 1971 (Census Canada, 2021). According to the Canadian Agri-food Policy Institute, the rate of loss has more than tripled during the last three census intervals and reached nearly 500 hectares (1,200 acres) per day (1996-2001). This food land is lost forever and that pushes crop production onto more fragile and environmentally sensitive land.

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The trend in land tenure to non-owner operators has added cause for concern. According to Canadian Farm Credit Corporation statistics, in 2016, 43 per cent of our best land was rented or leased, up nine per cent in five years from 2011. Thus, our best food land has become a commodity to be used and used up.

When crops leave the farm they carry nutrients which are almost never returned. This creates a gap in the nutrient loop that has been filled with mineral fertilizers from finite sources. That gap must be closed in other ways to ensure sustainable food production.

There has been a resurgence of tillage during the past two census intervals and excessive soil disturbance has continued on too many farms. As tillage erodes and destabilizes soil it releases CO₂ to the atmosphere and disrupts the soil and water relationship that is the first limiting factor in crop production.

New risks to soil health include pressure to produce crops for markets where soil and environmental impacts are not fully accounted for. There are several examples. Let’s consider Beyond Meat. It demands more high-protein crops yet production of these crops results in a net loss of soil organic matter. Ontario soil test records confirm this. When organic matter is reduced, so is water-holding capacity and soil productivity.

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As we move forward, the management of soil, water and air can never be separated as each always impacts the others. And the only way we can sustainably produce food is to mimic nature. That can be achieved with the continuous use of no-till or strip-till in combination with cover crops and careful management of crop residues. 

On fragile land, sustainable food production can only be achieved by growing perennial forages that are processed by ruminant livestock to produce food. Increasingly, world food demand will require the use of fragile land.

Canada is not the only country with challenges. Globally, food demand for a growing population is making it impossible to produce it sustainably. Thus, soil and its productivity are simply being used up. Through soil degradation and increased urbanization, we lose an area the size of Scotland every year.

Just two per cent of the world’s land area produces 40 per cent of the world’s food. This land is mostly irrigated and irrigation water supply is increasingly fickle and finite.

Add to this the outcome of drought, floods and war, and it is clear that Canadian food land soil is about to come under severe external pressure. With just 6.7 per cent of our land suitable for crop production, how will we meet this challenge in a sustainable way?

Strategic action is needed now. 

The findings and guidance of this Senate Committee will be critical in charting a path forward.

1. We must define “sustainable” accurately and objectively as it relates to soil use for food production. Sustainable must not be just another term that is loosely or dishonestly used as a marketing ploy.
2. We must engage the public, planners, policy-makers and politicians to end the exploitation of our best food land for development. Land profiteers must not continue to undermine the societal good.
3. We must establish the true cost of food with the cost of soil degradation accounted for. This would establish the value from which Canadians can invest in soil care and protection. We know that erosion alone costs in excess of $3 billion per year. And then there is huge cost as the result of compaction, waterway sedimentation, cropland contribution to flooding and more.
4. We must measure food production efficiency as calories produced per litre of water used, because water is the first limiting factor in soil productivity.
5. We must ensure that all agriculture research considers and connects to soil carbon management, topsoil stability and precise water management. The Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Living Labs Program is an important step in making soil research relevant to real world conditions and to the farm user.
6. We must establish baselines so we can monitor trends in soil productivity, use and care. This should begin with water stable soil aggregate as the best indicator of soil health and stability.
7. We must advance the soil care “ethic” as the dominant “status symbol” among all landowners and soil users. Meaningful action is needed on every type and size of farm.
8. In particular, we must make soil protection and care the responsibility of all of government, well beyond the scope of agriculture, because abundant food is essential to social well-being and political stability. Soil is a strategic resource.

No civilization has ever survived the consequence of soil misuse or exploitive agriculture. With food production decline, people always moved on to new “soil frontiers.” That was the story of Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome, and a host of others. Today, almost all of the world’s most productive soil is already in use. 

We are on the last frontier. 

This frontier must be intensive, health-focused soil management.