The UK is 30 to 40 years away from “the fundamental eradication of
soil fertility” in parts of the country, the environment secretary
Michael Gove has warned. “We have encouraged a type of farming which has damaged the earth,” Gove told the parliamentary launch of the Sustainable Soils Alliance
(SSA). “Countries can withstand coups d’état, wars and conflict, even
leaving the EU, but no country can withstand the loss of its soil and
fertility. If you have heavy machines churning the soil and impacting it, if
you drench it in chemicals that improve yields but in the long term
undercut the future fertility of that soil, you can increase yields year
on year but ultimately you really are cutting the ground away from
beneath your own feet. Farmers know that.”
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