The challenge of soil

“The European Union must cease focusing merely on foreign Countries and on their low-price agricultural products. Political determination is needed to relaunch intensive sustainable agriculture in Europe, which is crucial for European food safety”. The theme of agriculture is broached in an article by Ettore Capri, associate professor of Agrarian Chemistry at the Faculty of Agrarian Studies of the Catholic University in Piacenza (Italy). Follows an excerpt.An underestimated problem. “Today Europe is the first importer of agricultural products from third countries…what does this entail?”. The issue was addressed by the scholars Harald von Witzke and Steffen Noleppa in the Report on “Agricultural Productions and Commerce in Europe”. “While problems such as the effects of anthropic activity on climate change and the reduction of water resources have gained increasing attention by researchers and within the public arena, only few have examined the extent to which soil-research is used for agricultural production or degraded to concrete and waterproofed surfaces instead”. “EU enlargement to 27 Member States has led to a rapid and ongoing increase in food demand that should be studied, along with the increase of pro-capita consumption”. “The growth of food products offer failed to keep up with an increase in demand for several reasons and thus Europe started extending its glance to arable lands across its borders, abandoning its own farms and arable territories”.The situation is critical. “Citizens’ demand of foodstuffs increases and the EU is called to meet this demand”. For Capri, “notwithstanding frequent moral considerations – first of all the misappropriation of resources from poor countries and the over-exploitation of land that is not state-owned – it is necessary to ponder the issue from the strategic angle, taking into account global implications resulting from political decisions and the effects caused by not considering the issue of European agricultural productivity and competitiveness, namely, social and economic problems that disregard the impact on the environment – caused by intense deforestation and by the increase in greenhouse gas emissions in extra-EU areas, as well as by environmental pollution caused by the depopulation of European countryside – and the food safety of the entire population”.Solutions. “The nutritional demand nearly doubled in the first half of the 21st century and there are only have two ways to meet it: i.e. by increasing the rural landscape or land productivity. We are compelled to opt for the second solution. There isn’t an infinite amount of land available at global level and stepping up productivity is the key to address different challenges”. “Furthermore – continues the scholar -, deforestation needed to increase the extent of arable lands affects global warming at a higher degree than industry or transportation does. There ensues that increased productivity is also a tool for the preservation of natural habitats”.The challenge. “The challenge today is to improve the quality and value of agricultural yield, namely, intensive sustainable agriculture based on these needs and characterized by innovation, along with social and political awareness. In order to meet this goal, however, it is necessary for the States to invest in public agro-economic research and to create a political milieu that will encourage private investment in research, and not hinder it. From the social angle – Capri concludes – European consumers and citizens must gain renewed awareness of the importance of agriculture as a purveyor of eco-systemic services and thus of social goods. This requires a major educational investment to train the next generations not to focus only on communication. At the same time it is necessary to invest in agricultural infrastructures in poor countries, making available the technologies adopted in rich Countries to step up competitiveness, reduce diseases and parasites and promote the sustainable use of chemical aggregates”.