A ploughman's quandary
15 May 2025
"Healthy soils are the foundation of life on earth", as Nikolaos Efthimiou, an agronomist at the Czech University of Life Sciences, puts it. The ground on which we walk impacts human health, food security, water systems, and our ability to adapt to the climate crisis.
Yet 89% of soils in European agricultural land are in poor condition, according to the European Commission. There are several reasons for this: intensive farming, droughts, floods, fires due to the climate crisis, pollution, and urbanisation. Most recently, Russia's war on Ukraine has ravaged more than 10 million hectares of the country's agricultural land.
With fewer nutrients in the soil to help crops flourish, European farmers are losing an estimated €1,25 billion worth of agricultural yield every year.
What's being done about it? The Commission proposed a Soil Monitoring Directive in July 2023 to ensure coherence in how soil data is collected across EU member states. The law will make soil health management targets evidence-based and legally binding. But so far, the directive hasn't passed – it's stuck in Parliament and the Council.
Alongside this top-down approach, Efthimiou argues that farmers and citizens need to be more engaged in the switch to sustainable consumption habits.
 | Laoise Murray Healthy soil, water, and air are not just localised issues; they have geopolitical consequences. India weaponised water access in the recent conflict with Pakistan. Poor soil quality is causing millions of people worldwide to migrate in search of farmable land. Access to healthy resources could become the defining political challenge of this generation. |
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