Clearly, OMAFRA and the…

Clearly, OMAFRA and the Working Group have committed much effort to addressing soil degradation in Ontario. Thank you! I have reviewed the “New Horizons” draft and offer the following comments.

If this initiative is to produce valuable results it must focus on soil management by farmers. Organic matter loss must be reversed and soil aggregation restored. This requires less or no tillage, cover crops and crop rotation that change the crop each year for three or more years.

Soil Management – Rewarding Soil Care: Incentives to adopt soil health practices must be long-term and large enough to ensure action without further support to agriculture. Please do not repeat past strategies and expect to achieve different results.

Soil Evaluation & Monitoring – Assessment Tools: It is important to improve soil health assessment tools. However, in the short-term, rather than trying to rely on current assessment methods for determining soil health, which can be inconsistent, it is more prudent to attach support/incentives to practices used/implemented that are known to support soil health/care/conservation, such as cover crops, no-till/strip-till, extended crop rotations, surface/groundwater management, etc.

Soil Health Partnerships: It is highly unlikely that most farm organizations will encourage any practice beyond status quo. Many of the very large farm operations do not participate in voluntary programs, yet they control a large part of the Ontario agricultural landscape. The only way to ensure consideration by these people is through cropland ownership property taxes.

Soil Knowledge and Innovation – Education: Soil health and care is also a societal issue. Soil erosion and degradation impacts our environment (water and air pollution) and our food supply. Suggestions for actions that could help elementary/secondary schools and the general public increase awareness, understanding and appreciation of the importance of healthy soil would be: To support a robust initiative in the schools with a collaborative mandate initiated with the Ministry of Education and supported by the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change. Teachers could have professional development days on soil at the University of Guelph and be supported in the classroom by AgScape. Support and expansion of the Ontario Science Center’s Soil exhibit would aid the general public; for example, a narrated video of the slake test; how erosion impacts streams and lakes and the aquatic life they sustain; how tillage destroys soil aggregates and biota and releases carbon; etc.

General comments: We know how to prevent soil degradation. Many good soil conservation programs and initiatives have been implemented over the years with much success – but there’s always drift back to status quo. Why are the lessons lost? Is it because of indifference, complacency, greed, self-serving advisors, a pride factor to own larger, more powerful machinery, or a combination of these ills? Or, is it because none of the previous programs had a sustaining component that prevented slippage back to the old soil-degrading habits? It is likely both but with a heavier emphasis on the later point.

We are at a critical cross-road. Will our choice with “New Horizons” be one of true leadership that will make a real difference to soil health and conservation and one that future generations will cite as pivotal to their survival; or, will it be yet another lost opportunity and nails in the coffin of future generations?

[Original Comment ID: 211650]