Farmer implements new soil knowledge with love

The polemic about a new food system and a new agriculture in the Netherlands is growing. Some time ago, a report of the Council for the Environment and Infrastructure (Rli) for commotion. Dutch agricultural soils are said to be severely impoverished and in danger. Ho, say Hidde Boersma and Joost van Kasteren.

Dutch soil is under attack. This spring, the Council for the Environment published the report "The soil reached", in which it warned that the quality of the Dutch soil is not going well, partly due to too intensive use in agriculture. It resulted in media headlines such as "Bad soil quality in the Netherlands stands in the way of achieving the climate targets.' in de Volkskrant and 'Advice: more action needed to improve soil quality,' by the NOS.

Rabobank CEO Barbara Baarsma also got involved in a interview in Trouw. She called the condition of the soil 'poor' and stated that the high pressure on the soil lowers the nutritional value of our food, a statement she also defends in her recent book "The Netherlands food paradise". an echo of the stories that environmental organizations have been telling for some time: by stating that intensive agriculture is destroying the soil, they are trying to change the agricultural system in the Netherlands

herbal vitality
But is it also true? To start with the latter: the nutritional value. Baarsma's comment about declining nutrient levels can be traced directly back to the RLI report: it contains a graph with frightening numbers: spinach is said to contain only a third of the vitamin C compared to 1985, the amount of magnesium in potatoes has been halved since then. But if you look for the source in the reference list, you will find the website Herbalvitality.info, a seller of food supplements. The graph is there without any scientific substantiation. It is worrying that the Rli is using this as a source.

more nuanced
If you really delve into the scientific literature, you will see that it is different. Canadian scientist Robin Marles collected in 2017 for the Journal of Food Composition and Analysis all available dates. He first showed that little reliable research has been done, but that the available data show that there are hardly any differences between old and new crops.

The content of fruit and vegetables varies much more by the climate of a particular year, by chance, or by the use of other varieties, than by deteriorating soil. If a difference is measured, then there is the dilution effect: more recent crops grow so fast that the ratio of carbohydrates versus vitamins and minerals changes. Again, it has nothing to do with soil quality.

look wider
Then the bigger picture: the overall soil quality. The RLI's report relies heavily on the work of the Louis Bolk Institute, an anthroposophical organization that openly championed fertiliser-free, organic farming. If you look more broadly, you will also see that the story is more nuanced. Work from, for example Jan Adrian Reijneveld of the WUR shows that the organic matter content, an important indicator of fertility, in the Netherlands as a whole is not declining, but is stable.

Also work by the European Union and from the United Nations gives the Dutch soil good scores: there is little erosion and degradation. Real problems arise on the African continent, where poor farmers do not have the means to return nutrients to the soil after harvest, in the form of fertilizers, fertilizers or crop residues, and agriculture thus becomes a kind of predatory agriculture. Dry areas in the Mediterranean and the overgrazed fields of Kazakhstan and Australia are also problematic.

This is no surprise to anyone who visits a Dutch farmer. They keep a close eye on the quality of their land. At least once a year someone comes by to measure the nutrient content of their soil and farmers strive to at least keep the values ​​stable. Logical, because it is a precondition for good yields the following year. Dutch farmers are generally highly educated and skilled enough to pay close attention to soil quality.

resentment
Of course, it doesn't mean that nothing can be improved. Compaction of the soil, due to the use of machines that are too heavy, is a problem. Farmers try to prevent this by going out on the land less often with machines, and lighter, sometimes even unmanned machines are being developed. Attention is also paid to the so-called microbiome, the entirety of small life in the soil.

Farmers use less pesticides and fertilizers than 40 years ago to conserve soil life. They are also experimenting with non-turning tillage, a way of farming in which there is no plowing, so that life in the soil remains intact. Much of this knowledge is new, but implemented with love.

solid science
Harsh statements that the soil quality in the Netherlands is poor contribute to the polarization in the agricultural debate. It portrays the conventional farming system as bad, and the alternatives as good. Baarsma mentions the initiative in her Trouw interview Below the ground, a collaboration of, among others, the IUCN (which draws up the red list), the Butterfly Foundation and the ecologists of the NIOO-KNAW, who will turn the tide.

It implies that farmers are not able to manage their soil themselves, but that nature organizations do it for them. That creates resentment. If we want to make Dutch soil and agriculture as a whole more sustainable, we have to do it together, based on honest and sound science.

This article is part of the content collaboration between Boerenbusiness en foodlog.

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