Soil health – Soil and Health Association of NZ

The Soil & Health Association is welcoming last week’s “Knowing what’s out there” report by the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment. The report criticises New Zealand’s lack of monitoring and regulation of environmental harm from chemicals.

**Jodie Bruning, national councillor for the Soil & Health Association**

“New Zealand lags behind other countries on monitoring and regulation of toxic agrichemicals, putting our health, environment and overseas trade agenda at risk,” says Soil & Health spokesperson Jodie Bruning.

“A more integrated framework, suggested by the report, will help the right hand know what the left hand is doing, this is currently not happening in New Zealand, when it comes to environmental chemicals.

“For example the Environmental Protection Agency, our government watchdog on these issues, had to make a public appeal last year for information on glyphosate use. Why do they need to resort to this? Because they don’t monitor glyphosate’s use, availability, or impacts. There’s no feedback loop between the agency and our territorial and local authorities.

“It’s been shown that glyphosate is a probable carcinogen and its widespread use in New Zealand must be stopped.

“Glyphosate is the tip of the iceberg. Our regulatory settings are useless if we are not informed about environmental pollution, and if the regulator is not keeping an eye on what’s happening on the ground.

“The government needs to take this report seriously. This includes expediting a formal reassessment of glyphosate as a key next step in protecting New Zealanders and the natural environment from harm.”

ENDS

Notes

The PCE report is covered here: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/462653/lack-of-mechanisms-to-govern-chemical-use-in-nz-commissioner

The health of our food and therefore the health of people is dependent on the health of the soil. Most of the food we eat has been grown in a fragile layer of topsoil that has been formed over thousands of years. Topsoil is being lost at an ever-increasing rate due to extractive agriculture and forestry practices. Industrialised agriculture, through the use of agrichemicals, overstocking, heavy machinery and a lack of soil cover, is destroying soil structure, causing soil compaction and erosion, and the depletion and loss of soil organic matter and nutrients. Organic agricultural methods, in contrast, use sustainable soil and crop management practices (including species-rich pastures) that work to protect and enhance soil fertility, structure and biological activity in the system.

The Soil & Health Association, as our name suggests, believes in restoring soils for the production of healthy food, therefore healthy people and a healthy earth.

We support organic agriculture and farming systems that foster soil health and produce healthy and nutritious food.

We encourage the use of organic residues and the recycling of biodegradable organic wastes such as manures, green manures, seaweed, and compost.

We encourage the use of minerals in their natural forms as fertilisers to re-establish soil mineral balance and to nourish soil microbes.

We are opposed to the use of synthetic fertilisers.