Soil health and canine health

I was in love with soil as a child, of course. I played with it, rolled around in it and – if photographic evidence is to be believed – ate it. When I became interested in gardening I understood, in an abstract way, that it was important to care for the stuff, but it wasn’t until I started making organic dog food that I really came to realise the essential wisdom of Lady Balfour’s remark that ‘Health, whether of soil, plant, animal or man, is one and indivisible.’ I’ll come back to the connection between soil health, canine health and canine diet in a moment. First, a quick summary of the UK’s soil situation. 

In June 2019, Emma Howard Boyd, then chair of the Environment Agency introduced a report on the state of British soil with these words:

‘Soil holds three times as much carbon as the atmosphere, it reduces the risk of flooding by absorbing water, it is a wildlife habitat, and it delivers 95% of global food supplies. Unfortunately, it is a limited resource under pressure from climate change, population growth, urban development, waste, pollution, and the demand for more (and cheaper) food.’

She then quoted Leonardo Da Vinci, who pointed out five hundred years ago that ‘we know more about the movement of celestial bodies than about the soil underfoot,’ saying that she believed we are no less ignorant today. Indeed, the government’s most recent (2023) report on soil opens with this worrying statement:

‘Soil biodiversity and the many biological processes and soil functions that it supports are thought to be under threat. There are insufficient data on the health of our soils. Investment is needed in soil monitoring.’

In other words, the government suspects it’s bad, but doesn’t know how bad. What it does know is that in England and Wales:

  • almost 4 million hectares of soil are at risk of compaction
  • over 2 million hectares of soil are at risk of erosion
  • intensive agriculture has caused arable soils to lose about 40 to 60% of their organic carbon
  • soil degradation was calculated in 2010 to cost £1.2 billion every year
  • wasting food and growing crops for bioenergy are putting additional pressure on soils
  • spreading of some materials to land is poorly controlled and can give rise to contamination… around 300,000 hectares are contaminated in the UK, and
  • microplastics are widespread in soil with unknown consequences.

Compaction and the loss of organic carbon, by the way, are serious threats to soil health. They affect agricultural production and our resilience to climate change. UK soils currently store about 10 billion tonnes of carbon. This is roughly equal to 80 years of annual UK greenhouse gas emissions.

Although there are plans afoot to improve British soil health by 2030 it is not considered a political priority. According to the Sustainable Soils Alliance there are numerous reasons for this including the perceived complexity of soil, and a reluctance by governments to ‘interfere’ with what is a farmer’s private property. Soil also rarely features in public awareness campaigns so there is less political pressure to act.

Not surprisingly, The Soil Association has much of interest to say on the subject. It believes that the problem is cultural:

‘Farmers have come to see agro-chemicals as the main source of fertility and pest/disease control. This has led farmers not only to overlook the unintended consequences of agro chemicals damaging soils, it has also diverted attention from soil health which should be at the heart of farm decision-making. The agrochemical industry has helped perpetuate this culture. It has also arguably diverted research from more innovative farming practices. In particular, there is an increasing realisation that soil life may be the key to crop productivity, but little research is being invested in this area and huge knowledge gaps remain.’

Cultural or commercial? The cost of food has been driven down and down by the agri-food industry (and it is an industry), while the government pushes for higher and higher yields (in the name of food security) with the result that almost all farmers are forced to think short term. The result is damaging rotations and high value but soil damaging crop systems with quick returns.

How can soil quality be improved? The answer is by returning to a more sustainable way of farming, increasing the amount of plant and animal matter going back onto fields, encouraging soil organisms (both those that build up soil and those that release nutrients), covering up bare soil with continuous plant cover, growing more trees on farmland, rotating crops in such a way as to improve soil health, and reducing soil compaction from machinery and livestock. These are all things that organic farmers do as a matter of course. However, the organically farmed land area in the UK has fallen by a staggering 30% since 2010. Why are British organic farmers giving up? Because they get no help from the government and because consumers are unwilling to pay the extra cost for British organic produce in part due to the prevalence of cheaper organic produce from overseas (where compliance may be easier and labour and land less expensive).

What has all of this got to do with dog food?

More than you might imagine. Food contains has a higher nutritional value if it is grown or produced on higher quality soil. This is why at Honey’s we are totally committed to using:

  • Certified organic meat and vegetables.
  • Pasture fed, free range and wild meat.
  • Chemical free vegetables washed in plain water without chlorine.

And why we will have no truck with meat that is intensively reared (which is hugely damaging to soil health) or vegetables that are grown with the aid of chemical fertilisers, weed killers, insecticides etc. (also hugely damaging to soil health.

In other words, what is best for your dog – high quality food with a high nutritional value – also happens to be best for the environment.

By Guy Ellis

Guy Ellis is Head of Production for Honey’s Real Dog Food.

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