Oliver Moore: What does EPA say of Irish soil quality?
Indeed, Monday saw a symposium on soil in Galway, with speakers from the UK and Ireland addressing soil related issues.
In organic farming, building soil quality is a key practice, as organic farmers cannot replace some of the inputs at the disposal of conventional farmers.
While the global situation is stark, as outlined here last week, how relevant are these issues for Ireland?
With land use changes and the general intensification of farming, there are a number of threats to soil functionality relevant on this island.
While Irish soils are considered relatively good by international standards, concerns include decline in organic matter, erosion by wind and water, compaction, loss of soil biodiversity, contamination, and landslides.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has expressed concern that peat extraction, energy crops, as well as ploughing rough or permanent grassland for tillage impact negatively on soil organic matter.
Maintaining soil organic matter is important for water and air quality, and for lowering our greenhouse gas emissions (methane and nitrous oxide especially).
Soil erosion also impacts on water courses, leading to fish kills and eutrophication.
EPA states: “Soil erosion occurs as a result of poor soil management practices on vulnerable soils; inappropriate cropping regimes, overgrazing, and direct access to watercourses.”
It adds: “Serious incidents of soil erosion are localised but it is likely climate change will cause increased rates of soil erosion due to higher rainfall intensity and possible loss of organic matter, which will result in reduced structural stability.”
Without abatement techniques, soil compaction will inevitably increase as animals and machinery get bigger and heavier, and as climate change ushers in more extreme and erratic weather patterns.
Incredibly, the EPA states: “No comprehensive data is available on the severity or extent of soil compaction in Ireland.”
It is thus highly unlikely that anything is being done to invest in researching abatement of soil compaction.
If work is being done, it is in an information lacuna.
Water logging and flooding are more likely with soil compaction, while soil organic matter reduces with compaction, too — all of which reduces the natural productivity of the land.
Diffuse contamination arises as a result of deposition from the atmosphere and activities such as agriculture, forestry, horticulture, and spreading of organic wastes on land.
The EPA also points to many practices, including (but not exclusively) agricultural moves which increase the likelihood of landslides and floods.
“Slope gradient and profile, soil drainage and permeability ... heavy rainfall and changes in land use and land cover, human activities such as excavations, undercutting and land drainage.”
Again many of these are interconnected and likely to worsen with climate change itself worsening.
Plans to ramp up production, as outlined in Food Wise 2025, will not reduce these stresses.
Bigger continental animals, bigger machinery, and fewer hedgerows are just some of the inevitabilities of Food Wise 2025.
What are the organic farming responses to this situation?
Next week, organic farmers and growers Pat Lalor (cereal, beef) Jim Cronin (horticulture), and Klaus Laitenberger (training, horticulture), all of whom spoke at the Soil Symposium, will give us their views.
These three experts, growing for many years in Westmeath, Clare, and Leitrim, respectively, will deal with soil on the organic farm, as well as the wider applicability of organic techniques on conventional farms and for society in general.
