Soil: the great connector of our lives now and beyond COVID-19

Soil: the great connector of our lives now and beyond COVID-19

Humanity depends on the existence of healthy soils, both for the production of food and for ensuring a healthy, biodiverse environment, among other functions. COVID-19 is threatening food availability in many places of the world due to the disruption of food chains, lack of workforce, closed borders...

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Published in:Soil Vol. 6; no. 2; pp. 541 - 547
Main Authors: Poch, Rosa M., dos Anjos, Lucia H. C., Attia, Rafla, Balks, Megan, Benavides-Mendoza, Adalberto, Bolaños-Benavides, Martha M., Calzolari, Costanza, Chabala, Lydia M., de Ruiter, Peter C., Francke-Campaña, Samuel, García Préchac, Fernando, Graber, Ellen R., Halavatau, Siosiua, Hassan, Kutaiba M., Hien, Edmond, Jin, Ke, Khan, Mohammad, Konyushkova, Maria, Lobb, David A., Moshia, Matshwene E., Murase, Jun, Nziguheba, Generose, Patra, Ashok K., Pierzynski, Gary, Rodríguez Eugenio, Natalia, Vargas Rojas, Ronald
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Göttingen Copernicus GmbH 05-11-2020
Copernicus Publications
Subjects:
Agricultural management
Agriculture
Connectors
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
Cultivation
Environmental degradation
Food availability
Food chains
Food production
Food supply
International organizations
Investment
Land use
Land use management
Land use planning
Pandemics
Soil
Soil degradation
Soil management
Soils
Sustainability
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Summary:Humanity depends on the existence of healthy soils, both for the production of food and for ensuring a healthy, biodiverse environment, among other functions. COVID-19 is threatening food availability in many places of the world due to the disruption of food chains, lack of workforce, closed borders and national lockdowns. As a consequence, more emphasis is being placed on local food production, which may lead to more intensive cultivation of vulnerable areas and to soil degradation. In order to increase the resilience of populations facing this pandemic and future global crises, transitioning to a paradigm that relies more heavily on local food production on soils that are carefully tended and protected through sustainable management is necessary. To reach this goal, the Intergovernmental Technical Panel on Soils (ITPS) of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) recommends five active strategies: improved access to land, sound land use planning, sustainable soil management, enhanced research, and investments in education and extension. The soil is the great connector of lives, the source and destination of all. It is the healer and restorer and resurrector, by which disease passes into health, age into youth, death into life. Without proper care for it we can have no community, because without proper care for it we can have no life. – Wendell Berry (American novelist)
ISSN:2199-398X
2199-3971
2199-398X
2199-3971
DOI:10.5194/soil-6-541-2020