Danger all around us. We are warned of chemical residues in the fruit and vegetables we eat - never mind the meat scares. We are regularly informed of water pollution, air contamination from car emissions, and generally have hammered into us that the world we live in is dangerous and probably getting worse. Then you read an article by the well-known English environmentalist Jonathan Porritt, in which he tells us that soil should have the same priority in environmental protection as air or water. He explains that what to us looks just like another expanse of brown stuff is really the hotbed of life itself, teeming with millions of micro-organisms, constantly in flux. It is, he says, our past, our present and our future. Yet, says Porritt, in spite of all the laws about air and water, farmers, foresters and developers have more or less carte blanche to use or abuse soil as they will.
In history we have seen continuous cultivation of the same soil for thousands of years - Egypt and parts of China are mentioned. This he calls best practice. Worst practice to him was seen in the collapse of the Mayan civilisation in South America, due to the over-exploitation of fertile lands. So it's up to us, he says, to enhance soils by building up their organic content. Erosion of soil occurs through the loss of hedgerows and other windbreaks, especially when reduced organic matter is added. But the biggest soil loss, he says, quoting the Council for the Protection of Rural England, is the irreversible loss caused by urban development. Could this be minimised in Ireland if not all new housing schemes had to be of only one or two storeys? We don't want Ballymun towers all over the place, but could not the new commuter-land take some four-storey houses, say? Or is the problem comparable with that of Britain?
The council in Britain mentioned above recommended that no public subsidy should be given without the adoption of farming practices that protect soil resources. "The earthly habitat of man's spirit is his body, and the roots of his physical and mental wellbeing spring from the soil itself, whether the individual be a town or a country dweller." Written over 50 years ago in The Living Soil, by Lady Eve Balfour. Back to manuring, use of compost-heap? All Green talk? Or not?