{"id":138076,"date":"2023-07-06T03:00:28","date_gmt":"2023-07-06T01:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cde.ual.es\/?p=138076"},"modified":"2023-07-06T09:32:19","modified_gmt":"2023-07-06T07:32:19","slug":"european-green-deal-more-sustainable-use-of-plant-and-soil-natural-resources","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cde.ual.es\/en\/european-green-deal-more-sustainable-use-of-plant-and-soil-natural-resources\/","title":{"rendered":"European Green Deal: more sustainable use of plant and soil natural resources"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Commission adopted a package of measures for a sustainable use of key natural resources<\/strong>, which will also strengthen the\u00a0resilience of EU food systems and farming<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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A\u00a0soil monitoring law<\/strong>\u00a0will put the EU on a pathway to healthy soils by 2050, by gathering data on the health of soils and making it available to farmers and other soil managers. The law also makes\u00a0sustainable soil management the norm<\/strong>\u00a0and addresses situations of unacceptable\u00a0health and environment risks due to soil contamination<\/strong>. Today’s proposals will also boost\u00a0innovation and sustainability<\/strong>, by enabling the safe use of technical progress in\u00a0new genomic techniques<\/strong>, to enable developing climate-resilient crops and reducing the use of chemical pesticides, and by ensuring more sustainable, high-quality and diverse seeds and reproductive material for\u00a0plants and forests<\/strong>. Finally, new measures also propose to\u00a0reduce food and textile waste<\/strong>, which will contribute to a more efficient use of natural resources and a further reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from these sectors.<\/p>\n

These measures will bring\u00a0long-term economic, social, health and environmental benefits to everyone<\/strong>. By ensuring more resilient natural assets, the new rules in particular support people living directly from land and nature. They will contribute to\u00a0prosperous rural areas, food security, a resilient and thriving bioeconomy<\/strong>, put the EU at the forefront of innovation and development and help reverse biodiversity loss and prepare for the consequences of climate change.<\/p>\n

A new EU Law to increase the value of soil and its resources<\/strong><\/p>\n

60 to 70% of soils in the EU are currently unhealthy<\/strong>. In addition, a billion tonnes of soil are washed away every year due to erosion, which means that the remaining fertile top layer is disappearing quickly. Costs associated with soil degradation are estimated at over \u20ac50 billion per year.<\/p>\n

The proposal for the first-ever EU legislation on soils provides a\u00a0harmonised definition of soil health<\/strong>, puts in place a\u00a0comprehensive and coherent monitoring framework<\/strong>\u00a0and fosters\u00a0sustainable soil management and remediation of contaminated sites<\/strong>. The proposal brings several sources of soil data under one roof, combining soil sampling data from the EU’s Land Use and Coverage Area frame Survey (LUCAS) with satellite data from Copernicus, and national and private data. The ultimate goal is to achieve\u00a0healthy EU soils by 2050<\/strong>, in line with the EU Zero Pollution ambition.<\/p>\n

Soil data will\u00a0support innovation, technological and organisational solutions<\/strong>, notably in farming practices. It will help farmers and other landowners implement the most appropriate treatment methods and help them increase soil fertility and yields, while minimising water and nutrient consumption. In addition, this data will improve our understanding of trends on droughts, water retention and erosion, strengthening\u00a0disaster prevention and management<\/strong>. Healthy soils and better data provide additional\u00a0income opportunities for farmers and land managers,<\/strong>\u00a0who can be rewarded for carbon farming, receive payments for ecosystem services or for increasing the value of healthy soils and food produced on them. The proposal does not impose any direct obligations on landowners and land managers including farmers.<\/p>\n

Member States will define positive and negative practices for soil management. They will also define regeneration measures to bring degraded soils back to a healthy condition, based on national soil health assessments. These assessments will also inform into other EU policies, such as LULUCF, CAP and water management.<\/p>\n

The proposal also requests that\u00a0Member States address unacceptable risks for human health and the environment due to soil contamination, guided by the polluter pays principle<\/strong>. Member States will need to identify, investigate, assess and clean up contaminated sites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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EU agriculture ministers discuss food safety and waste aspects of packaging rules<\/a><\/h4>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
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More resilient food systems with New Genomic Techniques<\/strong><\/p>\n

Farmers and breeders need access to state of the art innovation. New technologies can help boost resilience for both agriculture and forested land and protect harvests from the effects of climate change, biodiversity loss and environmental degradation.\u00a0New Genomic Techniques<\/strong>\u00a0(NGT) are innovative tools that help increase the sustainability and resilience of our food system. They allow developing improved plant varieties that are\u00a0climate resilient, pest resistant, that require less fertilisers and pesticides and can ensure higher yields<\/strong>, helping to cut the use and risk of chemical pesticides in half, and reducing the EUs dependency on agricultural imports.<\/p>\n

In most cases, these new techniques lead to\u00a0more targeted, precise, and faster changes\u00a0<\/strong>than conventional techniques, while growing a crop that is the same as what could have been achieved with classic techniques like seed selection and crossbreeding.<\/p>\n

Our proposal will:<\/p>\n