This week, April 19 to 25 is National Soil Conservation Week, an opportunity for us to recognize the importance of Canadian soil and think about actions we can take to protect it. Soil is the foundation of all the food we eat and, quite frankly, we could not survive without it.
Unfortunately, Canadian soil has been severely degraded in recent decades. Currently, only about 7% of Canada’s land is suitable for agriculture. According to the Soil Conservation Council of Canada, the country lost 3.9 million hectares of farm land between 1972 and 2011. This loss comes with an economic cost of $3.1 billion annually – not a small figure.