The Soil Crisis
Soil is Life. The world grows 95% of its food in the uppermost layer of soil, making topsoil one of the most important components of our food system. However, generating three centimeters of topsoil takes 1,000 years, and if current rates of degradation continue, all of the world's topsoil could be gone within 50 years.
Conventional farming practices have caused nearly half of the world's most productive soil to disappear in the last 150 years, threatening crop yields and contributing to nutrient pollution, dead zones, and erosion. In the US alone, soil on cropland is eroding 10 times faster than it can be replenished.
Without topsoil, the earth’s ability to filter water, absorb carbon and feed people plunge. Not only that, but the food we do grow will probably be lower in vital nutrients. A 2004 study published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition compared nutrients in crops grown in 1950 to those grown in 1999 and found declines in protein, calcium, phosphorus, iron, vitamin B2, and vitamin C. The world is facing a crisis in nutrition.
Composting & Organic Waste Management is a win-win solution to add nutrients back to the soil naturally and keep organic materials from landfills.
WeRadiate works with several vertical markets by providing knowledge and technological tools to them for improving soil health. These markets are communities interested in organic waste management, medium & large compost facilities, farms, and local governments. WeRadiate’s solutions aim to propel their current processes or introduce new practices that make a higher environmental impact and their business profitable & efficient.
Many global policy frameworks, including the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), directly and indirectly, address land and soil. Many of these SGDs such as Zero Hunger, Climate Action, Good Health & Well-being, and Sustainable Cities & Communities cannot be achieved without healthy soil and sustainable land use.
WeRadiate is determined to improve the quality of our soil and make a positive environmental impact.
Learn more about the WeRadiate Pillars — Our Integrated Solution to support Soil Health and make an Environmental Impact on the weradiate.com home page.
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Sources and Additional Reading Materials:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/only-60-years-of-farming-left-if-soil-degradation-continues/
https://www.eea.europa.eu/signals/signals-2019-content-list/infographics/soil-and-united-nations-sustainable/view
https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/12/1052831
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/57-billion-tons-of-top-soil-have-eroded-in-the-midwest-in-the-last-160-years-180979936/
https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/07/1123462
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/may/30/topsoil-farming-agriculture-food-toxic-america
https://revolutionized.com/what-is-regenerative-agriculture/