Highlights from the World Living Soils Forum
According to the World Living Soils Forum, less than 1% of reports on sustainability and environmentalism mention soil, the substance on which all life depends.
Given the rate of global land degradation, soil has become a silent crisis and one that overlooks not just the cost of intensive agricultural practices but the innovative solutions emerging to transform the sector.
The World Living Soils Forum was established in 2022 to put soil back on the agenda.
In October 2024, they hosted their 2nd conference in Arles, France, where over 500 farmers, scientists, business leaders, start-ups, and executives from the private and public sectors, came together to discuss regenerative practices, soil measurements, farming policies, certification, education and business management.
With over 70 sessions spanning two days, the forum showcases the breadth of those invested in the soil cause and the rewards of achieving landscape restoration at scale.
For inspiration and highlights from the forum we’ve pulled keynotes from three sessions which look to the future of farming.
1) Soil Health and Product Quality (Full session: 30 minutes)
In this panel, the connection between soil health, bionutrients and the taste of food is explored alongside practices to enhance soil vitality and nutrient-rich crops.
· Panellist, Dan Kittredge, coined the term “nutrient density” in 2008 when he was an organic farmer and here he talks about his journey to find if his organic produce was actually measurably better than that which was conventionally farmed.
· Researching 25 different crops from roots and leaves to fruits and grains, he went on to quantify variation in mineral, flavour and antioxidant compounds and deduced the causal factor was not soil type, climate zone or individual practices but the level of life in the soil.
· Now he is part of a group trying to determine a descriptive scale for nutrient quality in food and reward those with higher soil standards.
· A second panellist, Andrew Smith from the Rodale Institute, adds to the story having overseen the longest running side-by-side trial of organic vs conventional farming in North America.
· Starting in 1981, the data collected from these trials show vast differences in soil health, carbon stores and bioactive antioxidant compounds, but research on the impacts of food quality remains fairly young.
· His bottom line is that organic farming reduces chemical exposure to human beings and on that basis alone it’s the direction we need to go in.
· The final panellist, Hippolyte Courty is an expert in wine and coffee production. His point is a simple one: farming practices that nurture the earth produce more flavourful produce.
2) Innovations for Soil Health (Full session: 30 minutes)
In this session, a panel of soil innovators and investors discuss their approaches to improving soil health, farm commerciality and crop performance.
· Justine Lipuma, a soil microbiologist, works with farmers to produce microbial soil applications to enhance the natural symbiosis between plants and soil.
· She talks about how farmers can produce more food with less chemical fertiliser using these applications, with audits showing improvements to yield, quality and overall costs.
· Fabian Le Bourdiec started his professional life as a sleep scientist who studied electrical signals in the human brain.
· Now, he applies these signalling methods to plants and is working on ways to give agronomic indicators to farmers about what their plants need. E.g. signals on the water content of a crop can be used for irrigation management while other indicators can detect disease or assess food quality.
· Isabelle de Cremoux is a funds soil innovators.
· According to de Cremoux, the fact we have only mapped 15% of the soil microbiome makes investment in the sector, and support for farmers, likely to accelerate in the next 5-10 years.
3) From Pioneering to Mainstreaming Practices (Full Session: 30 minutes)
In this session, Patrick Holden, founder and CEO of the Sustainable Food Trust, introduces his model for moving sustainable and regenerative farming concepts into the mainstream.
· Holden is an organic dairy farmer based in west Wales, who has spent the past 5 decades working to make regenerative practices more commercial.
· This has included work with the Soil Association where he helped develop a certification standard for organic farming.
· Here, Holden speaks of the successes and challenges of this approach, including the alienation of conventional farmers and the dangers of creating niche food markets that only wealthy individuals can afford.
· Now, having founded the Sustainable Food Trust, his focus is on creating new revenue streams for farms based on their carbon capture, nutrient density and social impact.
· Farmers’ role in storytelling is also something Holden advocates for and he suggests regenerative farms should host open days, events or platforms that showcase their positive impacts, inviting funders and policymakers to show where more help is needed.
All talks from the World Living Soils Forum are free to watch online.
By Kate Balding