25 October

Environmental Standards Scotland (ESS) have called upon the Scottish Government to bring forward legislative proposals to protect Scotland’s soils. This call follows ESS’ initial scoping report ‘The Risks to Scotland’s Soils’, released last week, which outlined the need for action to safeguard soil through policy.

A report recently published by the European Commission maps the interplay between policy drivers, pressures and impacts on soil health in the UK and the EU. This work emphasises the importance of promoting evidence-based soil governance policy frameworks in order to achieve ecosystems resilience.

Representatives from 196 countries have gathering in Cali, Colombia, for the 16th United Nations (UN) Conference of the Parties summit on biodiversity (COP16). The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the global authority on nature conservation, have highlighted the importance of the role of soils in biodiversity at COP16 through their ‘Conserving healthy soils’ policy paper.

British farmers have expressed their frustration at the slow rollout of the Sustainable Farm Incentive (SFI) and lack of a Higher Tier Countryside Stewardship (CS) actions in a webinar with Defra held by the National Farming Union (NFU). Farmers also expressed concerns over faults in the online application system.

New research has compiled over 3,000 soil samples from six continents to study the impact of soil viruses on soil and crop health. Researchers are hoping that these samples will shed light on interactions between the soil virosphere and soil processes such as plant productivity and carbon sequestration.

Norfolk-based soil health pioneers PES Technologies have been named Agri-tech Innovator of the Year at the 2024 British Farming Awards. The firm won for their system sensor detecting soils’ biological signature, allowing farmers to carry out soil tests without the need to send samples to laboratories.

Bricks made from simulated lunar soil – a potential reuseable soil-based building material for future habitats on the moon – are scheduled to be sent to space for exposure experiments. The bricks made from simulated lunar soil have a similar density to ordinary bricks but are three times stronger.