News Europese Commissie
'70 percent of soils in the EU are unhealthy'
The European Commission has today (5 July) adopted a package for the sustainable use of key natural resources. The complete package of measures published today should also boost resilience and agriculture in the EU and fall under the banner of the Green Deal. For agriculture, the opening for the use of new breeding techniques and a law on soil monitoring are particularly relevant.
Farmers and livestock keepers must have access to advanced innovation. This advanced innovation is understood to mean: the new genomic techniques. Although the Commission wants to loosen the reins a bit in the hitherto very strict GMO policy, we in the EU are not given the same space as, for example, in the US or Brazil. The EU distinguishes between two categories, namely GMO crops that are comparable to naturally occurring or conventional crops. Consider, for example, CRISPR-Cas, which accelerates the process of traditional breeding. The second category is GMO crops with more complex modifications. Foreign plant genes are used there to achieve a desired characteristic, such as Bt cotton and maize or roundup-ready varieties. The relaxation that the Commission is aiming for mainly concerns new varieties from the first category.
According to the Commission, it is important that legislation keeps pace with scientific developments. Some regulations were drawn up more than fifty years ago and updating and simplifying the current regulations is therefore not a superfluous luxury, according to the Commission. According to the Commission, Europe is the largest exporter in the global seed market with a market share of 20% and an estimated value of €7 to €10 billion.
Unhealthy soil costs €50 billion
Another important piece presented today is the Soil Monitoring Act, which sets the EU on a pathway to healthy soils by 2050. The Commission aims to achieve this by collecting soil health data and making it available to farmers and other soil managers . Sustainable soil management must become the norm according to the Commission. It is striking that the Commission writes that '60% to 70% of soils in the EU are currently unhealthy'. In addition, 1 billion tons of soil is washed away every year by erosion, causing the fertile cultivation layer to quickly disappear. The costs of soil degradation are estimated at more than €50 billion per year, according to the Commission.
The new soil legislation favored by the Commission provides a 'harmonised definition of soil health, provides a comprehensive and coherent monitoring framework and promotes sustainable soil management and remediation of contaminated sites'. To this end, the EU wants to bring together soil data from different sources, such as soil sampling data from the EU Land Use and Coverage Area frame Survey (LUCAS) combined with satellite data from Copernicus and national and private data.
Jurphaas Lugtenburg
© DCA Market Intelligence. This market information is subject to copyright. It is not permitted to reproduce, distribute, disseminate or make the content available to third parties for compensation, in any form, without the express written permission of DCA Market Intelligence.