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Also read: [Video] Regenerating soil organic matter through rotational/managed grazing
Every day we tread on the soil beneath our feet. All trees, vegetables, food, water and life itself depend on it. Yet soil is a complex and fragile universe, the very foundation of every ecosystem and of our own survival. World Soil Day invites us to take a moment to focus on this hidden world and on how urgent it is to take care of it, in a global context of climate crisis, biodiversity loss and food insecurity. These interconnected challenges are also highlighted by FAO initiatives and agroecology networks.
In recent years, farmers’ movements, environmental networks and research centres have brought the relationship between soil health, seed diversity and the rights of rural communities to the forefront. Their work shows that caring for the land is an ecological, social and cultural issue at the same time.
Agroecology and Soil Health
Agroecological and organic farming offer a production model that brings the land back to the centre of life, working in harmony with natural cycles instead of treating it as a mere resource to be exploited. In different regions of the world, demonstration farms and training programmes show that it is possible to regenerate soils through crop rotations, composting, natural pest control, water conservation and the use of local seeds.
Long-term studies document the measurable results of these approaches: trials at the Rodale Institute show a 27% increase in soil organic matter in organic systems after 30 years, while monitoring of agroecological farms managed with regenerative methods has recorded increases of 26–99%, with some cases of soil organic matter doubling. In practical terms, experiences such as the Navdanya Biodiversity Conservation Farm in India – founded in 1995 and run as a living laboratory of regeneration – have shown a transition from poor soils to soils with organic matter levels above 4–6%, thanks to integrated agroecological practices. At Bija Vidyapeeth (Earth University), located on the Navdanya Biodiversity Conservation Farm, farmers and students from around the world attend theory-and-practice courses where they learn how agroecology regenerates soil, preserves biodiversity, increases small farmers’ incomes and builds climate resilience.
These experiences show that living soil, rich in organic matter and biodiversity, is more fertile, more resilient to extreme events and supports fairer, healthier food systems. In this sense, agroecology is not just a farming technique, but an approach that weaves together the ecological, economic and cultural dimensions of communities.
In this context, seeds become central. In agroecology, climate-resilient seeds are not laboratory products, but evolutionary populations and local varieties that farmers have bred over time in their own environments, through repeated cycles of drought, heavy rains, different soils and pest outbreaks. Research on participatory and evolutionary breeding shows that these in-field breeding systems generate a wide range of genetic traits, making crops more adaptable to climate uncertainty than genetically uniform industrial seeds.
Experiences with community seed banks – such as those promoted by Navdanya, which conserve, multiply and share thousands of varieties able to withstand salinity, floods or prolonged drought – show how the living diversity of seeds can go hand in hand with the sovereignty of rural communities and with truly regenerative food systems. Instead of relying on patents and external inputs, these farmers’ networks support soil fertility, the autonomy of smallholders and the collective capacity to adapt to the climate crisis.
The Price of the Industrial Model
Soil decline often remains invisible, yet it is a major impact of industrial agriculture. In conventional agriculture systems, around 45% of Europe’s mineral soils fall into the low or very low organic carbon classes (0–2%). Soils that are poor in organic matter represent a key factor of vulnerability. In intensively cultivated soils there has been a historical decline of 30–40% in organic matter compared to their original condition, and Mediterranean soils with organic carbon levels below 2% are considered at high risk of degradation and desertification by FAO and the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre.
These depleted soils are more prone to erosion, loss of structure and greater vulnerability to drought. Global data indicate that 33% of the world’s soils are moderately or highly degraded due to erosion, loss of organic matter, nutrient imbalances, salinization and human exploitation. In long-term conventional systems, organic matter tends to remain unchanged or decline slightly, even though fertility is artificially maintained through external inputs.
By contrast, diversified and regenerative cropping systems have shown that they can steadily increase soil organic matter. Higher organic matter improves soil structure and stability, water-holding capacity, biological activity and resilience, reducing vulnerability to degradation processes.
False Solutions and Fake Food
In the face of the climate crisis and soil degradation, a wave of supposedly “innovative” solutions is emerging. Many of them, however, risk reinforcing the existing industrial model instead of changing it. The push for synthetic foods and artificial meat is often framed as a way to cut livestock emissions and reduce intensive farming. Yet these products remain tied to high‑input monocultures, agrochemicals, long global supply chains and proprietary systems built on patents and royalties.
Many of these items are a new generation of ultra‑processed foods, made from raw materials grown in highly industrialised systems and promoted by the same actors who built today’s agrifood system – the one driving biodiversity loss, the climate crisis and diet‑related diseases. Rather than shifting the underlying logic, from monocultures to concentrated corporate power, there is a real risk of replacing real food with “fake food”. This further weakens local food systems and food democracy.
In this context, animals cannot be judged in a single, uniform way. The impacts of intensive livestock production are radically different from those of extensive or regenerative grazing. Experiences with regenerative grazing and holistic management show that, when animals are integrated into well‑managed agroecological systems, they can help increase soil organic matter, improve soil structure and boost carbon sequestration. In this way, cattle and other animals can become part of the climate solution, not only part of the problem.
Regenerating Soil and Communities
Regenerating soil is not only a matter of agronomic techniques. It also calls for a profound shift in the food system: moving from linear, industrial models dependent on external inputs to ecological, local and circular systems, where food grows out of living relationships between soil, plants, animals and communities. In this perspective, agroecological practices are not just technical alternatives, but the driving force of a food system transformation that puts care for the land, food sovereignty and climate justice at the centre.
Community seed banks, networks of farmers who exchange local varieties, farmers’ markets, community gardens and ecological education programmes are all concrete tools that many communities are already using to build regenerative food systems from the ground up. Initiatives such as Terrae Vivae, promoted by Navdanya International, show how protecting soil, seeds and biodiversity can go hand in hand with ecoliteracy, youth engagement and participatory processes in which communities themselves design their own resilience strategies.
Education, especially when it takes place in fields, woods, pastures and real urban and peri‑urban spaces, makes it possible to recognise soil as an ally rather than an inert support. Soil and agroecology workshops, sensory journeys, experiences of regenerative grazing and observation of local ecosystems help turn this change of paradigm into everyday practice: from which seeds farmers decide to grow to water management, from crop diversification to collective organisation of food, regenerating both the land and the social ties rooted in it.
A Call for World Soil Day
World Soil Day calls on institutions, local communities and citizens to recognise soil as a common good, to be protected through policies, farming practices and consumption choices that support its protection. Campaigns for World Soil Day around the world underline the links between healthy soils, food security, climate and social justice, and stress that protecting soil is as essential as protecting air and water.
To celebrate this day is therefore to support regenerative agriculture, to give space to the custodians of the land – small farmers, Indigenous communities and peasant networks – and to promote land use that safeguards fertility, biodiversity and the rights of future generations. It is daily choices, from public policies to what happens in the field, that turn awareness into action capable of giving soil a future and, with it, a future to all who depend on it.
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