Date:              15 July 2008
Embargo:       None

Consultation response on the Draft Soil Strategy for England

Responding to Defra’s consultation on the Draft Soil Strategy for England, ESA welcomed the Government’s decision to develop a Soil Strategy as a signal of its commitment to protecting and enhancing soil as a provider of essential functions for society.

The importance of a national strategy in this area has been enhanced by the current absence of equivalent EU law following the rejection of the draft EU Soil Framework Directive by Member States.

ESA agreed that a strategic soil strategy was the most suitable way of ensuring that greater protection is provided to soil as a finite resource. It was also positive that the analysis recognised the increases in soil carbon that can be achieved by applying organic materials to land and that, for true ‘additionality’, only materials diverted from landfill should be regarded as genuinely creating additional carbon storage.

ESA supported HMG’s proposed objectives in principle, but felt that the tone used with regard to adding organic materials to land was unnecessarily negative.

ESA recognised the importance of understanding and mitigating any risks associated with this activity but regretted the consultation’s use of negative terminology and lack of connection between the need to reverse declining organic content of soil and the potential for recycled organic materials to do this.

ESA particularly agreed with the objective to determine what could be done to enrich low carbon soils. However, ESA argued that the consultation did not appear to directly link this particular objective with the list of actions and proposed areas for development, including the need for further research into increasing the return of processed waste organic materials from source separated organic waste streams to land (a process which effectively ‘closes the loop’ around food production, processing and wastage). Given that a number of major food retailers have committed to a ‘zero waste to landfill’ policy, ESA argued that HMG should make clear how these commitments align to policy.

ENDS

Notes to editors

Defra consultation