Soil health was being discussed on the back of the Environmental Audit Committee’s report into the issue which was published earlier this year.
The report recommended the government take a number of actions to improve soil health, such as refining cross-compliance in order to mitigate agriculture’s impact, creating an incentive structure in the 25-year environment plan to encourage farmers to contribute to sustainable management of soils; excluding maize from the renewable energy subsidy and taking tougher action to prevent peatlands being burned and drained.
Committee chairwoman Mary Creagh said “One of the first findings of our report is that soil is a Cinderella environmental issue.
“It receives a lot less attention than air pollution, water quality and climate change but supports 95% of the world’s food production.”
The MPs were critical of the government’s progress on improving soil health so far, claiming its target to sustainably manage soil by 2030 would not be met without change to policy.
There were calls for the government to introduce a rolling national monitoring scheme, similar to the one in place in Wales but Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Minister Therese Coffey rejected the idea on the grounds of expense.
Other MPs claimed farmers monitoring chemicals in soil was not enough and the government should be looking at the organic and carbon content of soil too.
European Union policies were criticised by Taunton MP Rebecca Pow, who said “I do not think there should be a blame game against farmers.
“Many of the ways farmers have been forced to farm have been directed by our policies of low-cost food.
“That is why many farmers have gone down the route of monoculture and least-cost production and our European Community policies have encouraged that.”
But concerns were raised about the impact of increased food production on soil quality, with one MP claiming it was unwise to look at food and farming purely from an economic, money-making viewpoint and nothing more.
Meanwhile, farmers hit back at a tweet from the Soil Association that suggested those who were not organic “abuse their animals”.
The statement prompted a backlash from Twitter users who described the video, entitled Millions of farm animals are abused in the pursuit of cheap food, but there is another way . . .’ as disrespectful, misleading and totally inaccurate.
The association defended the move, adding more than 80% of animals raised in the EU were factory farmed and could not exhibit their natural behaviours.
It said the tweet, which was sent as part of the #ChangetheWorld campaign, was to highlight the importance of high animal welfare.
But Cheshire dairy farmer and writer Phil Latham said the tweet was playing on consumer misconceptions and was unfair towards conventional farmers.
“I have absolutely no problem with the Soil Association differentiating organic milk.
“There are fantastic examples of good organic but also good conventional.
“The tweet enhanced the danger of deliberation and framed the narrative that organic is better – which for animals is just not true.”
In a tweet in response to the video Latham said “You erroneously want to position your production system above others #false.”
The association latrer apologised and said “We apologise for the misunderstanding caused by a recent tweet.
“Animal welfare is an emotive subject and we were trying to convey a very complex message in a short space and we did not do a good job.”
The organisation said it was trying to work with all farmers and did not want to appear anti-farming, adding the us-and-them attitude in the tweet was not helpful and was not something it wanted to promote.
“This is a problem with the system, not individual farmers. We recognise that most farmers, whether organic or not, care deeply for their livestock,” it said.
