Soil: The Most Important Thing You’re Probably Not Thinking About
Image from Soil: The World at our Feet, Somerset House.
When was the last time you thought about soil? Or perhaps, considered the soil your food came from? You may never have, and fair enough, because let’s be honest: to most people, soil just isn’t that sexy, or is it?
Beneath our feet lies an underground metropolis - of fungi, microbes, worms, roots, minerals, moisture, memory, and more. A hidden world quietly keeping us all… ALIVE!
I have seen a growing number of people posting on Instagram about how sticking your hands into soil has a positive effect on the nervous system - direct contact with soil has been linked to reduced stress levels, improved mood, and enhanced cognitive function. The reason? Those teeny, tiny beneficial microbes in healthy soil, that we cannot even see.
This past month, my agroecology studies sent me on a deep dive into soil health, along with the carbon cycle, nutrient flows, compost heaps, and cow dung. Too much, I know. But I realised something simple but profound: soil isn’t just the foundation of farming. It’s the foundation of all life.
And how we farm either builds or breaks that foundation (and either helps or kills those tiny, beneficial microbes that we really need). And the ripple effects are massive. They’re not just environmental, they’re nutritional, emotional, spiritual… even existential.
So let’s dig in.
🌱 Soil and the Carbon Cycle: It’s a Love Story (if we Let It Be)
Plants are quiet alchemists. Every day, they pull carbon dioxide from the air and, through photosynthesis, turn it into sugars that feed themselves, the soil, and the microbes in the soil, and grow into plants that feed us.
Animals munch the plants, those microbes break down the dead plant matter, and the carbon cycles between the atmosphere, soil, and life. That is… until humans get involved.
Conventional farming disrupts this elegant dance. Ploughing (aka tillage) exposes carbon stored in soil to oxygen, releasing it back into the atmosphere as CO₂.
Intensive livestock systems compact the ground and degrade pastures, killing off soil life, and synthetic fertilisers and pesticides short-circuit soil biology, essentially wiping out all the microbes.
But here’s the good news: Agroecological farming practices can reverse this.
No-till or reduced tillage protects soil structure and all our microbial friends that keep carbon locked underground.
Cover crops keep living roots in the soil year-round, fuelling photosynthesis and feeding microbial life, even when we’re not harvesting crops.
Mob grazing, done well, mimics nature - moving herds in a way that fertilises and restores land.
So long story short, when we treat soil as the living, intelligent system it is, it becomes the carbon sink it’s meant to be, and a climate solution rooted (literally) in care. When we tend to soil and all the life held within it, we tend to the planet and ourselves.
🥬 Soil to Stomach: Why Human Health Starts Below Ground
Let’s break it down…
Healthy soil → healthy plants.
Healthy plants → healthy animals.
Healthy animals and plants → healthy humans.
Simple.
When soil is rich in organic matter and microbial life (our teeny, tiny friends), the plants absorb more nutrients, and those nutrients move up the food chain.
This brilliant Wicked Leeks article digs into it further. Dan Kittredge from the Bionutrient Institute, who’s been studying the soil–nutrition link for years, says:
“There is a direct relationship between the health of the soil, the health of the environment, and the nutritional calibre of the food that soil produces.”
In other words, soil teeming with microbial life grows food that tastes better and is more nourishing.
It’s the same for animals. Cows raised on herbal leys (mixed pastures with deep-rooted plants) produce milk with a better fat profile: more Omega-3s (anti-inflammatory, good for us), fewer Omega-6s (pro-inflammatory, linked to modern diseases). Grain-fed cows? The opposite. More Omega-6, less Omega-3. And yes, it’s been scientifically proven.
Because the soil microbiome feeds the human microbiome.
🌍 In Conclusion: The Wise Intelligence Beneath Us
Soil isn’t just alive, it’s wise.
It knows how to regenerate, recycle, and rebalance. If we let it. If we work with it and become the custodians we are supposed to be.
The more we listen to the land, the more we’re invited into true reciprocity - not on the take all the time, but giving back.
In every handful of healthy soil, there are billions of tiny lives at work. A hidden web of intelligence holding us all up. Soil really is amazing.
The future is not in space, it is right under our feet.
Thanks for reading
Victoria.
You can also find me on Instagram @fields_of_imagination_ or leave a comment below
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🌾 Real change starts with us - know who grows your food and how it was grown.