Herefordshire

SHI0001 Written evidence submitted by Mr I. Carr I would like to raise the issue of the ploughing up of river meadows on the Marches , in particular Herefordshire. Most of the river meadows are now in an arable rotation, with considerable slt movement in times of flooding. The affects the water quality and the aquatic environment as a result of silt deposition. The matter should be looked into. I would hesitate to recommend what action to take. December 2015 SHI0002 Written evidence submitted by Mr S. Norris 1. I am writing in response to your inquiry into soil health. By way of introduction, I am a PhD student that has just submitted my Thesis; I have been working/studying soil heath and ecology for 10 years. This response is the view of myself only and does not reflect the view of any organisation that I have been affiliated with. As this is a personal response to your inquiry I will attempt to keep my response short, however if you would like to further discuss my view I will be more than happy to assist in any way possible. How could soil health best be measured and monitored? How could the Government develop a strategy for tracking soil health? 2. Soil health should be measured through the organic matter content of soil, soil invertebrate biodiversity (Springtails and mites) and soil microbiology (fungi and bacterial) these test should be made mandatory for land managers, land owners and stakeholder in UK. These tests should be carryout every 5 years to ensure our soils are in good condition to enabling them to provide good quality food and aid with carbon sequestration. Investment should be made into find rapid and repeatable measures for these properties as there are only costly methods available. What are the benefits that healthy soils can provide to society? 3. The benefits that health soil can provide to society are often not immediate or obvious. Soil health is a long term investment that will pay dividends in the future. Improved soil heath can help improve crop yield, increase carbon sequestration, increase carbon storage potential and reduce the quantity of inorganic fertiliser required to grow crops. There are also benefits for supporting improved soil heath resulting in supporting the wider bio- economy. What are the consequences of failing to protect soil health for the environment, public health, food security, and other areas? 4. Ultimate disaster, the American dust bowl is a classic example of poor soil management and has been part of the UK national curriculum for a number of years. The environment will ultimately be damaged through increase soil losses, run-off, and nutrient loss leading to sedimentation of river bed and increase pollution, not to mention that due to a rapidly increase degradation of soils would lead to farmers applying more fertiliser which would feedback into being washed off into water-courses exacerbating the problems. In regards to public health, increased pollution would lead to greater severity in incidences of public health incidents. For example increased sediment loss from fields through poor soil management would lead to an increase risk of rivers being block from sediment loss. These risks will also be exacerbated in the future with greater rainfall intensity and frequency being predicted. The above factors combine to increases the risk of flooding, which is a public health risks. In regards to food security not managing soil heath appropriately would lead to reduced yields and increased application rates of organic and/or inorganic fertiliser just to maintain current yield, ultimately increasing the cost of production and increasing pollution as well as reducing the economic benefits from food production. SHI0002 What measures are currently in place to ensure that good soil health is promoted? And what further measures should the Government and other organisations consider in order to secure soil health? 5. The recommendations from the soil protection review should be implemented in to statutory polices. Although I am aware this will be considered a controversial view, I would like to see strict penalties for land owners that mismanage their soil, including confiscation of land. I hold this view because soil, although not a finite resource, takes many thousands of years to form and the disruption of this process impacts humans and nature for generations to come. What role (if any) should soil health play in the Government’s upcoming 25 year plan for the natural environment? 6. A key role, it is the part of our ecosystem that supports our agriculture, wildlife, and culture. If we have poor unproductive contaminated soil there will be a dramatic reduction in our living stands. Land owners must be encouraged to manage their soil for their benefit and for the coming generations. Further research should be aimed at mitigating damaging anthropogenic effects on soil health, especially in the form of research that was conducted by defra before dramatic cuts rendered them useless. December 2015 SHI0003 Written evidence submitted by Professor Mark Hodson, Head of Environment Department, University of York I have been working on soil related issues for 20 years, all of which in broad terms cover Soil Health I address each of the enquiry questions in turn How could soil health best be measured and monitored? How could the Government develop a strategy for tracking soil health? To define soil health you need to define what services you wish soil to deliver. Measurements are best done in the field on a regular basis - maybe once every 5 years to give things a chance to change, but at similar times of year and preferably after similar weather. Things to measure would include organic matter content, soil density, water holding capacity, rate of water infitration, fertility via a simple plant growth bioassay, soil biodiversity - I guess using genomics for microbial diversity, but also assessing soil invertebrate diversity, e.g. annelids - need to do this at an appropriate season, i.e. not the summer, some measure of erodability - perhaps soil aggregate distribution. To develop a strategy for tracking soil health the gov. just needs to decide on how frequently samples will be taken and determine a suite of regular sites for sampling - sounds a bit like the country side survey to me! What are the benefits that healthy soils can provide to society? These are well rehearsed in the ecosystem services literature - food provision, water storage and filtration, reservoir of natural antibiotics, carbon storage, amenity value etc. What are the consequences of failing to protect soil health for the environment, public health, food security, and other areas? These follow form the above - diminishing food production, increased flooding, decreased water quality, increased C in the atmosphere, loss of amenity and consequently physical and mental well being, loss of possible source of new antibiotics What measures are currently in place to ensure that good soil health is promoted? And what further measures should the Government and other organisations consider in order to secure soil health? I don't know about this. What role (if any) should soil health play in the Government’s upcoming 25 year plan for the natural environment? Soil is fundamental and should be at the heart of any measures to protect the natural environment. If you can't mine it you have to grow it. Plus see above in terms of consequences of failing to protect soil health. December 2015 SHI0004 Written evidence submitted by Mr Glyn Mitchell, Promessa Soil 1 I am writing in response to your inquiry into soil health. I am a Living Soil Consultant, Bee keeper and a grower who assays soils through accepted scientific methods and makes microbial diverse Compost to treat soil stripped of life. I also work for a recognised Soil Food Web Laboratory based in Jersey Channel Islands. Our mentor is Dr. Elaine Ingham. Executive Summery 2 The application of high rates of N.P.K in agricultural systems has had many unintended negative consequences for soil function and environmental health. Data from N. America’s longest running field experiment on the impacts of farm production methods on soil quality have revealed that high inputs deplete soil carbon, impair soil water-holding capacity and ironically, also deplete soil N (Khan et al.2007, Larson 2007) How Natural systems can replace synthetic application given a chance. 3 On a global scale, biological nitrogen fixation accounts for around 65% of nitrogen used by crops and pastures. There is scope for considerable increase. The supply of nitrogenous inexhaustible, as dinitrogen (N2) comprises almost 80% of the earth’s atmosphere. The key is to transform inert nitrogen gas to a biologically active form. Fortunately - thanks to some ‘enzymatic magic’ - atmospheric nitrogen can be transformed to ammonia by a wide variety of nitrogen- fixing bacteria and archaea - for free. 4 As managers of plant growing systems, people just need to do two things: (1) stop killing beneficial organisms (all pesticides affect more than just the organisms listed on the label) and (2) manage the diversity of beneficial organisms so the plant can take care of itself. The plant will adjust nutrient cycling, i.e., control the forms of nutrients it needs, if it is given a chance to set up the biological system it needs. People need to “set the stage” and then let the plant do what it has been doing successfully for the last billion years. Maximise productivity. 5 Typical ranges of bacteria, fungi, protozoa and nematodes, along with maximum diversity of all groups, for different plant species are known. There is no single food web structure or no one set of organisms that is right for all conditions, all plants, all chemicals, all soil types and so on.

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