Launched today at the EU Soil Observatory Stakeholder Forum, the 2024 State of Soils in Europe report assesses the state of soil degradation across the EU and other countries in the European Economic Area, including Ukraine, Türkiye, and the Western Balkans. The report shows alarming status and trends, with soil degradation getting much worse in recent years, and highlights the need for immediate action to reverse this trend.

From afar, scaling soil health by switching from traditional monocrop agricultural systems to regenerative systems may seem as easy as planting the right plants in the right spot. However transitioning to new systems usually sees farmers’ yields decrease before they increase, which can be a limiting factor for farmers who don’t have a financial cushion to fall back on. Support is needed to help them bridge the gap.

CA4SH is a multi-stakeholder partnership of member states, the private sector, research institutions, civil society, farmer organizations, multilateral organizations, NGOs, and more. Drawing on this wealth of knowledge, we organized the second installation of our 2024 Webinar Series: The road ahead for soil health action to explore different mechanisms to invest in soil health, making sure these investments reach smallholder farmers.

CA4SH is a multi stakeholder partnership of member states, the private sector, research institutions, civil society, farmer organizations, multilateral organizations, NGOs, and more. Drawing on this wealth of knowledge, we organized the first installation of our 2024 Webinar Series: The road ahead for soil health action.

“Setting ambitious climate targets is great, achieving them is even better. The European Commission can be commended for setting its 2040 aim of a 90% reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from 1990 levels.

To achieve the target, yesterday the Commission has proposed a significant scale-up of carbon removals on the path to climate neutrality.

Yet before waiving the victory flag for ambition, we must acknowledge that the EU is already struggling to meet the majority of its climate and energy 2030 targets and there are significant policy implementation gaps post-2030.”

By Erica Johnson (External Affairs Manager of Agreena) and Zsolt Lengyel (Secretary of the Board of the Institute for European Energy & Climate Policy)

• Agreena registers two million hectares of European farmland on its pioneering soil carbon platform - an area the size of Slovenia

• More than 1,000 farmers across 17 countries have now joined AgreenaCarbon - transitioning from conventional farming to regenerative agriculture

• Agreena’s ability to scale soil carbon removals has been supported through the use of cutting-edge remote sensing technology coupled with machine learning

“July 3 - Summer marks a nervous time for Europe’s winemakers. The vines have flowered, the pollinated blooms have dispersed and the onset of ripening (la véraison) has already begun. The fate of the harvest now rests on the weather: the better the sun, the fatter their final fruit.

Adding to their nerves is confusion over an upcoming vote in the European Parliament over soil protection. A leaked draft of the EU Soil Health Law, which is due to be released by the European Commission on Wednesday, suggests that EU policymakers have rowed back on calls by progressive businesses and environmentalists to introduce binding obligations on companies.”

Read the original story from Reuters

Co-organizers of the dialogue on soil health – the Parliamentary Committee for the Development of Family Farms of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland, Mateusz Ciasnocha and the European Carbon Farmers – inform about the success of the policy event which took place at the Parliament of the Republic of Poland on Wednesday, 28 June 2023. The event was titled Soil health as critical for the health of farms, the health of the society and the health of the homeland and brought together a multitude of stakeholders to discuss the European Mission for Soil Health and its relevance in Poland.

The first Northern European Regional Meeting of the international 4 per 1000 Initiative took place in Helsinki, Finland from 6-8 June 2023. It was mainly and greatly organized by the Baltic Sea Action Group.

On 15 May, the Netherlands Food Partnership (NFP) convened a network session to discuss the potential the Soil Health Resolution offers for transforming food systems as per their objectives. NFP is a consortium of initiatives by Dutch organizations and partners from Low and Middle-Income Countries working towards food and nutrition security and achieving SDG2 by 2030. With soil serving as the very foundation of food systems, scaling soil health is a major part of their remit.

Aisha Hassan and Lukas Paltanavičius are cycling across the world to learn hands-on about practices of regenerative agriculture. In this guest article on the Furrow, they uncover how regenerative agriculture helps to increase biodiversity.

“64 Agriculture Ministers adopted an ambitious final communiqué at the 15th Berlin Agriculture Ministers’ Conference, part of the Global Forum for Food and Agriculture (GFFA). The GFFA 2023 addresses the issue of: “Food Systems Transformation: A Worldwide Response to Multiple Crises”. The Ukranian President Zelenskyy sent an appeal to the Minister of Agriculture.”

Cycle to Farms is documenting what regenerative agriculture looks like on the ground by cycling across Africa, Europe and the Middle East, speaking with farmers and learning about enabling environments and barriers, alike.