Are you participating in the BoerBodemMovement?

Agricultural crop yields have doubled and sometimes even tripled since the 50s and 60s. 'Technologists' brag about this and equate efficient, highly productive agriculture with sustainable agriculture. This is in contrast to the organic variant.

Due to its relatively low yields, it demands a lot of natural land to feed the world population. This is a truth as a cow! But this 'conventional' way of growing crops is reaching its limits. And then I won't even talk about the decline in nutritional value/mineral composition.

In recent years, it has been hard as a conventional grower to maintain those high yields with a lot of input. And that without achieving sufficient returns. Phasing out crop protection products and lowering the phosphate and nitrogen standards clearly shows where the problem is. The long droughts of recent years add to this considerably. I am referring to the soil and specifically to the lack of soil resilience via soil biology. This internal natural absorption system of the plant has been ignored and neglected for decades. High time for action and recovery.

Connecting insights
Food security starts with soil security. I am convinced that we can maintain the high yields that are necessary. By combining smart farming technology, the latest analysis techniques, low chemistry input, knowledge from seventy years ago and recent know-how from the biological field. In the transition to a future-proof agriculture and horticulture, these different insights are linked. At least if it's up to me.

It all starts with the realization that we cannot do without an underground biodiversity: 1 teaspoon of fertile soil contains more bacteria than there are people on the planet. Added together by weight, the top layer of a soil contains approximately 5.000 kilos per hectare of earthworms, springtails, fungi, bacteria, nematodes, protozoa, nematodes and mites. It is about the symbiosis between this soil life and the plant root. Life below ground gives life above ground. I don't quite understand the conflict between the ecologists and technologists. Nature-inclusive agriculture or agricultural-inclusive nature is a win-win on all fronts.

World Soil Day
There is nothing more important than the cooperation between soil life and plant roots. Fertile soil remains healthy through the photosynthesis of continuous soil-covering green plants. Just make it up or it can be traced back to the top layer and its green cover. Although soil management is the basis of our own survival, it is still heavily underestimated.

Perhaps because the natural soil processes seem complex and are certain. And we thought we had it all well organized. And chemistry had brought us so much. But sometimes we have to revise, recalibrate and dare to give in to new insights that are essentially as old as the globe exists. It really starts to creak and squeak. We will pay the price if we continue to cling to the methods of the past seventy years. Do we work with nature or against it?

On December 5 it is World Soil Day† Declared by the United Nations. Not because this club had nothing to do or thought it was a funny subject. No, to indicate the urgent need for good soil management to everyone involved with soil. In principle, this is every citizen of the world. But especially the farmer has the greatest stewardship.

Exhausted
In practice, we see Dutch 'production soils' that can no longer cope and are literally exhausted, because the focus has been on the mineral needs of the crop or on the extermination of insects. Monocultures, intensive and heavy tillage, fallow, soil herbicides and salting mineral fertilizers have drastically reduced the resilience of the soil.

I think there is much more benefit to be gained if we grow food with nature rather than against it. Protecting the soil from degradation also ensures that we can pass on fertile and healthy soil to future generations.

Nature is not a cost item
In the past century, a policy cut was made between culture and nature. But if you look closely, the Netherlands is simply one large cultural landscape. Forest, heathland and dunes have been created and maintained by human hands. Just like the farm fields. But it would be great to enrich our fields with natural processes.

To make those underground livestock work for us, so that enough food is taken from the land, CO2 is introduced into the soil and biodiversity returns. A robust soil that retains minerals and does not let it leach out or chase it into the air. By implementing ancient soil wisdom and by allowing the laws of nature into modern business operations, our fields can be experienced as nature again. Without Organic labels and Skal requirements.

No green NGO can be against regenerative agriculture. And it is certainly not the intention to return to the era of Ot & Sien. It must be realized that nature is not a cost item. It is precisely the solution to achieve a healthy and valued agricultural company. Healthy ecology for a healthy economy.

License to produce
Farmers and horticulturists have a positive image among the silent majority of the Dutch population. This became clear during the demonstrations in The Hague and is confirmed time and again by the annually recurring market research results. We should keep it that way. But is the real rural advocacy still there? This is hard to find in today's political arena. The BoerBurgerBeweging is going for a vote in the House of Representatives. Where the final decisions are made. The main pillar under this new political party is 'A healthy soil'.

Influencing regulations from within in favor of the farmer nowadays is not possible without taking into account the environment. Understanding for the village and the (created) nature. Because support to be allowed to produce on a piece of earth is of crucial importance. And it starts with awareness and insight among conventional growers. The transition process starts with understanding the soil. Behind the scenes, like-minded people with practical knowledge about regenerative agriculture are gathering.

A group of enthusiastic experts who can somewhat clarify the black box 'soil' with its invisible, useful residents and workers. A combination of professional persuasiveness and practical solutions that can be introduced step-by-step at the usual growers. Everything for a good future perspective for our passionate farmers. Through the bottom to a license to produce. Who participates in the BoerBodemMovement?

Pascal Phillips

Pascal Philipsen is regional manager for the South of the Netherlands and fertilization specialist at Timac Agro Nederland.

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