Soil Shortage

The Lempert Report
June 29, 2022

Phil: Sally, tell me about this soil shortage that we have.

Sally: Still we're hearing from a new report that the impact of soil degradation could total in $23 trillion in losses of food. Um, by 2050 now, just to put into perspective, I thought this was a really interesting, uh, quote and way of describing how important is Reza Afshar, Chief Scientist at the regenerative agriculture research farm at the Rodale Institute told CNBC that soil is the habitat for over a quarter of the planet's biodiversity. Each gram of soil contains millions of cells of bacteria and fungi that play a very important role in all ecosystem services. So this soil is a major part of sustaining life and they've identified 10 soil threats in this global report. And the number one is soil erosion, which is taking place everywhere. 

Phil: Yeah. And, and also it's so important to realize, that soil is a key factor in mitigating climate change. Soil contains more than three times the amount of carbon in the Earth's atmosphere and four times as much in all living plants and animals combined. Also the scientist from Rodale, let's not forget that Rodale, really started the whole organic farming movement in this country and they're still at it and, and good for them.