We hope that everyone is well, and our thoughts go out to the people, families, business and organisations affected by the continuing pandemic. You may have noticed the delay in the appearance of this newsletter, as you will know, these are busy times for environment and agricultural policy.

We are pleased to say our day-to-day routine has largely been unaffected by the changes brought on by Covid.  As an organisation that is light on its feet, with no fixed office space, we are well equipped for working from home and have adapted quickly to the challenges of Zoom, Teams, Skype - even the old-fashioned telephone - and have managed to keep projects and lobbying work up to pace. The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation also generously supported us with an emergency grant, which offsets other funding being held up or impossible due to Covid 19.

We have been looking at the history of soil guidance. We carried out an informal audit of the publicly available (on-line) soil management guidance developed over the last twenty years to help farmers measure, monitor, manage and improve their soils. Here is the published list of these resources and background detail (date, organisation responsible etc.):

The research revealed an abundance of soil guidance developed and promoted by a wide variety of organisations - Defra, NGOs, trade bodies, even supermarkets. Whilst there is no lack of good guidance – indeed the range and variety of responsible authors indicates a healthy interest in the subject matter, there are inconsistencies in the approach and advice contained within them, which risk becoming a source of confusion to farmers and other land managers. 

To accompany the research, we carried out an analysis of these different mechanisms – which also explains how soil health has been gradually relegated as a political priority over recent decades.  

It is this neglect that has led to a lack of clear, up-to-date, authoritative advice and guidance for farmers on soil health, something we will be campaigning for via ELM and other mechanisms in the months and years ahead.  If you can think of any more examples, please share them with us via: anicee@sustainablesoils.org.

We have been working with our science panel to address the issues faced when trying to apply and interpret Soil Quality Indicators (SQIs) with environmental outcomes in mind. More specifically, this work seeks adequate ways to ensure that SQIs are easily communicable and understandable, clearly demonstrates how soil delivers critical public goods, and how they can help achieve sustainable land management and usage.

We will be holding a workshop at the end of October where the science panel will drill into this issue along with Defra officials from the ELM department. 

As mentioned earlier in the year, WWF has helped us get this project off the ground, and we have been advising a major retailer about the best ways to drive soil awareness through their supply chain.

We submitted a formal response to Defra’s ELM policy discussion document, highlighting soil’s unique ability to deliver the public goods stated in the Agricultural bill. This was based on extensive consultation with our Science Panel, Strategic Advisory Board and others, so many thanks to all those who contributed to the process.

You can read our response here:

and here is a summary of the main points we looked to raise:

1.    Compliance with relevant soil and water regulations, including the 8 Farming Rules for Water, should be the baseline condition for receipt of any public money.  

2.    Regular soil testing – especially for soil organic matter - should be embedded in the scheme, and an expectation of all participants. 

3.    Payments should be allocated according to a blend of outcomes and activities - activities as a proxy to start with – then outcomes (especially soil organic matter build-up) after a period of time. 

4.    Universal soil-specific guidance should be developed embedded throughout the scheme – and implemented through consistent advice, measurement and monitoring techniques, practices and outcomes.  

5.    Farm advice on soil should be fully independent and accessible where it is most needed - at the beginning of a new tenancy or the start of any transition. 

We will be hosting an expert workshop later in the month to discuss these points and more, and explore what ELMs would look like if it had soil health at its heart.

In September we responded to the Environment Agency’s consultation on the 2021 River Basin Management Plan ‘Guide to Challenges and Choices’ in which we highlight how soil management can address agricultural pollution and how we can support the farming sector in finding solutions to maintaining productivity as well as safeguarding our environment.

Despite Covid, our engagement programme has been characteristically busy. This has included meetings with Defra Undersecretary of State Rebecca Pow, Natural England Chair Tony Juniper and officials from the Environment Agency and the Defra Soils Team. We have also virtually met with sister NGOs and with our stakeholder community including AHDB, CLA, NFU, and LEAF. In July, we participated on the Royal Society Soil structure evidence synthesis and at the Sustain farming group we have been discussing the future of ELMs, the Agricultural Bill and the Environment bill.

We are delighted to announce that we were successful in securing our core funding for the next two years from the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation. We are deeply thankful for their continuing support of our organisation and belief in our cause. We are also very grateful for a grant to pursue our work on soil carbon from SEM Trust, who have supported us over the past three years. 

This summer we formed part of a grouping of food and farming sector NGOs looking to address diversity and inclusivity in the sector.

We are also very pleased to welcome Anicée Defrance onto the team for a 12-month public affairs and public relations internship (Hello!).

And finally, we hope to shortly be launching our new website, so keep an eye out for a new layout and informative content.