Laying the groundwork for change - from the soil up

Talk around the U.N. Food System Summit (UNFSS) this week is, quite literally, about how sustainable food systems can emerge from the ground upwards.

Given that around 95 percent of all our food originates from soils, how we use and protect soil health is in the UNFSS spotlight.

Soil is much more than the dirt beneath our feet.

Soil health is the very foundation of food systems and provides many vital ecosystem services, including agricultural productivity, flood regulation, nutrient cycling and carbon sequestration. In addition, it hosts more biodiversity in one teaspoon than there are humans on Earth.

These thriving communities of soil biota drive the very processes that sequesters CO₂, locking away carbon in soil stores and avoiding its damaging release into the atmosphere.

Photo credit: Kelvin Trautman/CIFOR-ICRAF