The food crisis is about soil

By Dr Elias Allayiotis

Everything that we have comes from soil; the food that we eat, the things that we use every day, even our own body grows from nutrients that come from soil. It is a fact that our soil is dying, that we are headed into a world-wide food crisis, and we need to act now to stop this.

A major UN report found that 52 per cent of agricultural soils are degraded. That means that more than half of the land we use for food production today is lacking the necessary organic substance for food to grow. Soil degradation coupled with our rapidly rising world population, which is expected to reach 9.5 billion in the next 20 years, leads with absolute certainty to the fact that in the next 20 years we will only be able to produce 40 per cent of the food we produce now. Scientists keep warning us that we only have 40-50 years’ worth of agricultural soils remaining, and if we do not act now, we will not have enough food to feed ourselves.

For most of us this sounds farfetched, it sounds like a doomsday scenario that will probably not happen.  However, it is a fact that the “point of no return” for soil is getting closer every day and we need to urge our leadership with a call to action. It is our right, our urgent need and above all our responsibility to demand from our leaders and our government drastic measures to mitigate the soil degradation effect.

There are many popular buzzwords these days about the environment: “carbon emissions”, “green power production” and “sustainable development”, which stand as a testament that the whole environment in which we live is being threaten. But a more basic and far more severe issue is to take care of the one thing that feeds us and keeps us alive. Would any of these issues matter if we have no food to feed ourselves; food to feed our children? Would any of us think about sustainable development if we go to bed hungry at night, or if we know that getting a piece of bread would be a struggle?  And yes, I know that on our little island we have a major and long-standing problem to resolve. But I ask, would any of us care if our country is divided if we are starving? It’s a harsh question with a tough answer.

The issues that we face, either worldwide or locally in nature are serious and for them to be effectively addressed we need serious and progressive measures. To do that we need serious, mindful and caring leaders, to rise above petty politics and short-term economic interests and formulate a plan that ensures our wellbeing at the most basic level. However, responsibility falls upon us all, citizens, politicians and leadership alike. If we want caring leadership, we have to be caring citizens, as it is our right and above all our urgent responsibility to demand that our collective wellbeing is ensured, for us and for the generations ahead.

Let’s all raise the soil degradation and food crisis issue now, with the presidential election coming up. It is a prime opportunity for us Cypriots, to have ALL candidates listen and acknowledge that this an issue of the outmost importance that must be addressed. Now, is our time to ensure that our concerns, no matter how “politically sexy” they are, become part of their manifestos. If the declaration is there, then there will be a five-year mandate for the new government to act upon. We must ensure that saving our soil is high on the docket of all lawmakers and politicians alike.