Soil

Soil is one of the essential components of land, playing a crucial role in nature’s cycles, particularly water and nutrient cycles. Soil is the source of 90% of all food, feed, fibre and fuel production in the EU — and it also provides valuable raw material for the horticulture and construction sectors.

Even a small patch of soil can teem with life, ranging from tiny organisms to fungi and earthworms, all playing a vital role in the functioning of the soil ecosystem. In this space, nutrients are also turned into forms that plants can take up, allowing biomass to form and store carbon. It is here that drinking water starts its natural purification process.

These natural processes are under threat from pollutants released by industry, transport and other economic activities. Unsustainable farming practices, fertilisers and pesticides also contaminate the soil. Eventually, this pollution affects plants, animals and human health. Soil degradation in the EU also comes with an economic cost of more than EUR 50 billion per year.

The way we use soil is also linked to climate change. Soil contains carbon and nitrogen, which can be released into the atmosphere depending on how we use the land. Clearing rainforests for cattle grazing or planting forests can tilt the global greenhouse gas emission balance one way or the other. The melting of permafrost — soil meant to be permanently frozen — due to rising global temperatures can also release greenhouse gases and accelerate temperature rise. Climate change can also substantially alter what European farmers can produce and where.

In the EU, soils are overall a source of greenhouse gas emissions, but through management, it is possible to reduce these emissions and instead enhance the removal of CO₂ from the atmosphere.