THE IMPORTANCE OF SOIL

Soil – the physical and biological resource on which agriculture and human life depends - is undergoing significant degradation and depletion globally:

• With population growth and human expansion there are no land reserves available for future expansion of agriculture;
  
  
• Urbanization is permanently reducing the agricultural land available for supporting food production;
  
  
• Reliance on agricultural chemicals has resulted in a growing number of dangers to both human and animal health;
  
  
• Despite use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, most North American farms are experiencing a decline in soil productivity and profit;
  
  
• The combined effects of soil erosion, acidification, compaction, and salinization reduce crop yields and increase production costs;
  
  
• As a result, food security is a growing concern.
  

• Landfill practices deplete organic reserves and create profound water/soil contamination and health issues; and
  
  
• Proposed alternative technologies (e.g. incineration) permanently remove
  and destroy large amounts of organic matter (OM) from the agricultural food chain.
  
  

• We need to reduce, recycle and rethink how we deal with ‘waste’ organic matter.
  
  
• Current volumes of organic waste are increasing and need to be reduced and recycled rapidly.
  
  
• The ‘magic’ of landfills is a vanishing option.
  
  
• We need to commit to recycling all forms of organic matter in order to sustain agricultural production and manage our environmental impact.