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Celebrating Soil Congress with an Appeal to Save our Soils!
The clock is ticking. Across the world, every minute of every day and night fertile soil the size of 30 football fields is lost – a fact made abundantly clear by a ticker on a huge screen standing in front of the Royal Tropical Institute during the congress Celebrating Soil! Celebrating Life! that was organized by Eosta / Nature & More in Amsterdam. The numerous prominent speakers from all over the world left us in no doubt that we have to take urgent action if we are to preserve soil that constitutes the very foundation of all agriculture. The Amsterdam Declaration appeals to people to protect soils as a vital issue. We were all impressed by how cultural, spiritual and religious considerations were integrated into the event and how they made their contribution to the aim of Celebrating Soil! A Facebook campaign was launched to involve the public and within a few days there were 30,000 Likes. Per Like, the Nature & More Foundation makes available five euros to save our soils.
Picture: The Amsterdam Declaration was adopted at the end of the first day of the congress in which around 500 guests took part.
Experts have calculated that every year 24 billion tonnes of fertile soil are lost, which equates to an economic loss of 1.5 trillion euros. The consequences are devastating: if soil degradation continues at this rate, in 60 years agriculture will no longer be possible. This development has to be stopped in order to ensure food for the world and to slow down climate change. Representatives from trade, politics and cultural life in general all made this point. The speakers included the environmental activist Vandana Shiva, the founder of Sekem, Ibrahim Abouleish, Northface founder Dough Tompkins, the founder of Alnatura, Götz Rehn, the founder of Eosta, Volkert Engelsman, former ministers of agriculture from Germany and Bhutan, Renate Künast and Pema Gyamtsho, IFOAM President Andre Leu, a representative of the FAO, Hans Herren from the Millenium Institute, USA, Anna Blythe Lappé from the Small Planet Institute, USA, and many more.
The range of the contributions was most impressive. The songs of Angaangaq Angakkorssuaq, shaman and elder from Greenland, the words of Rabbi Awraham Soetendorp and the Dakota chieftain Looking Horse and Miha Pogačnik’s music interpretations added a spiritual dimension to the international conference “Celebrating Soil! Celebrating Life!“ held in the Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam. Although there was a lot of bad news, a sense of hope shone through. “We believe that, despite everything, we can he al out world,” explained the wife of Looking Horse. The words and ceremonies of around 500 attendees on 26 and 27 June gave the campaign “Save Our Soils” a voice.
website resource: http://organic-market.info/news-in-brief-and-reports-article/celebrating-soil-congress-with-an-appeal-to-save-our-soils.html
Picture: The Amsterdam Declaration was adopted at the end of the first day of the congress in which around 500 guests took part.
Experts have calculated that every year 24 billion tonnes of fertile soil are lost, which equates to an economic loss of 1.5 trillion euros. The consequences are devastating: if soil degradation continues at this rate, in 60 years agriculture will no longer be possible. This development has to be stopped in order to ensure food for the world and to slow down climate change. Representatives from trade, politics and cultural life in general all made this point. The speakers included the environmental activist Vandana Shiva, the founder of Sekem, Ibrahim Abouleish, Northface founder Dough Tompkins, the founder of Alnatura, Götz Rehn, the founder of Eosta, Volkert Engelsman, former ministers of agriculture from Germany and Bhutan, Renate Künast and Pema Gyamtsho, IFOAM President Andre Leu, a representative of the FAO, Hans Herren from the Millenium Institute, USA, Anna Blythe Lappé from the Small Planet Institute, USA, and many more.
The range of the contributions was most impressive. The songs of Angaangaq Angakkorssuaq, shaman and elder from Greenland, the words of Rabbi Awraham Soetendorp and the Dakota chieftain Looking Horse and Miha Pogačnik’s music interpretations added a spiritual dimension to the international conference “Celebrating Soil! Celebrating Life!“ held in the Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam. Although there was a lot of bad news, a sense of hope shone through. “We believe that, despite everything, we can he al out world,” explained the wife of Looking Horse. The words and ceremonies of around 500 attendees on 26 and 27 June gave the campaign “Save Our Soils” a voice.
website resource: http://organic-market.info/news-in-brief-and-reports-article/celebrating-soil-congress-with-an-appeal-to-save-our-soils.html
Tags: organic , soil
