We need to talk about…
We need to talk about…
How food production affects Europe’s soils and water
Over the summer, when I read this amusing guest essay by Italian journalist Ilaria Maria Sala in the New York Times, about Bologna’s unlikely elevation to a tourist hotspot, I found it both entertaining and horrifying. I was also intrigued because she said a consequence of this popularity was “the consumption of mind-numbing, heart-stopping amounts of mortadella”.
I’d never been a fan of mortadella, a pink, round thing that looks to be of indeterminate origin with questionable ingredients. Ilaria described it as “made of finely ground, light-pink pork dotted with white cubes of fat and, occasionally, pistachios”.
Dear Reader, I was in Bologna last weekend and had mortadella as starter in three out of six meals. I don’t know what kind of wizardry was used, but it was ridiculously moreish when eaten with crescentina fritta - small, puffed pieces of fried bread typical in Bologna.
I also witnessed how inescapable it is: mortadella in almost every single deli and sandwich shop and in every other tourist’s hands. As an unabashed foodie who cares about the environment, I felt really conflicted with seeing so much meat on display and being consumed, and of course, my own role in maintaining it.
After all, modern agriculture comes with a lot of environmental and biodiversity tradeoffs, and as you’ll see in this issue, it is causing problems for our soils and water.
Cali, a city in southwest Colombia, is currently hosting the 16th iteration of the Biodiversity COP, similar to the climate negotiations that are held annually at the end of the year. The event began on Oct 21 (Monday) and will last two weeks. So we’re at the midway mark.
World leaders who have descended on Cali will be bashing out key issues like how to finance the protection of nature and wildlife, whether an international market for biodiversity credits is the answer, and what would a mechanism to share benefits of digital sequence information (genetic sequences of living organisms including plants) look like.
I’m not there - too busy wolfing down mortadella - but there are good journalists and organisations attending COP16. Global Nature Beat has a good round up of who to follow and where to find the latest updates. Still, I’ll be writing about something biodiversity-adjacent this week: the state of water and soils in Europe, based on two reports that came out over the past 10 days.
1. Europe’s state of water 2024 by the European Environment Agency, an assessment based on reporting by member countries under the Water Framework Directive and other water-related reports.
2. The State of Soils in Europe by the Joint Research Centre (JRC), the European Commission’s science and knowledge service, and the European Environment Agency (EEA), an investigation into soil health in 32 member countries, along with six cooperating countries from the West Balkans, Ukraine and UK.
Water and soils aren’t part of biodiversity but they play essential roles in supporting the living organisms that make up biodiversity. Their quality, health, and management are crucial to maintaining ecosystems.
How’s the water?
“Europe's water is under significant pressure.”
That’s the first line of the report. Further on, it added: “Unless major changes occur in European lifestyles and economic development, Europe's water resources and ecosystems will continue to deteriorate, accelerated by the intensification of climate change impacts.”
Water stress is already occurring, affecting 20% of Europe's territory and 30% of the population every year. Climate change is likely to push up these figures.
2022’s continent-wide drought and heat cost up to 40 billion Euros, and if there are no climate mitigation and adaptation measures, costs from flooding is “estimated to increase six-fold… by the end of the century”.
Unfortunately, the 2015 deadline to meet good ecological and chemical status of surface water bodies and good chemical and quantitative status of groundwater bodies came and went without the goal being met. Worse, “there has been little improvement since 2010”, said the report. The 2015 deadline was set by the Water Framework Directive, the main law for water protection in Europe.
“In 2021, only 37% of Europe's surface water bodies achieved a good or high ecological status. 29% achieved a good chemical status. These figures have hardly changed since 2015.”
Groundwater, which provides two-thirds of the EU's drinking water, fares better: 77% of groundwater body area is in good chemical status, member states say.
There is direct impact on biodiversity. The continent is seeing the steepest decline on the planet (93% since 1970) when it comes to the population of migratory freshwater fish such as eel, sturgeon and salmon.
Aquatic biodiversity is also “declining at an alarming rate and… aquatic and water-dependent habitats are facing an acute crisis”.
Agriculture’s impact on Europe’s water bodies
Unsurprisingly, agriculture has been identified as one of the biggest sources of pressure on both surface and groundwater.
“At the European level, agriculture is the largest net consumer of water, with most abstracted water consumed by crops or evaporating (59% of EU water consumption).”
Irrigation: By far “the highest net water consumer in Europe and places particular pressure on freshwater ecosystems in southern Europe”. Yet demand for irrigation water in southern Europe has continued to increase - by 8% - since 2010.
Land use change: In northern Europe, we’ve drained wetlands and flood plains for agricultural use. They soak up water during wet periods, regulate the water cycle and act as a buffer from droughts, floods, heatwaves and wildfires and are biodiversity hotspots.
Yet, about 80% of wetland areas (large bogs and marshes, small or shallow lakes) in Europe have been lost in the past millennium and the trend continues. Since 1700 Ireland has lost more than 90% of its wetlands, Germany, Lithuania and Hungary more than 80%, and the UK, Netherlands and Italy have lost more than 75%.
One consequence? Declines in aquatic species and general aquatic habitat. The numbers of Beluga sturgeon, the largest freshwater fish in the world and an icon of Europe, have collapsed in recent decades due to overfishing and dams blocking their migration.
“The outlook remains negative, with wetlands still suffering from multiple pressures (including land drainage, habitat conversion and agricultural intensification)”.
Pesticides: One or more pesticides were detected above their effect threshold at “10-25% of all surface water monitoring sites reported to the EEA between 2013 and 2021”.
Pesticides often make their way into rivers, lakes, and other freshwaters after they’re used on fields. Rain washes them off, they drift through the air, or seep down through the soil into groundwater. They can also get into water from garden sprays or municipal use that ends up in urban wastewater. And more and more research is showing these chemicals are connected to declining wildlife populations, loss of biodiversity, messed-up ecosystems, and even long-term health issues for people.
There is currently no overview of the amounts of pesticides used and their emissions from agriculture at the European level. That leaves us with pesticide sales as a proxy, whose volumes have remained stable at around 350,000 tonnes sold each year from 2011 to 2020.
But that’s not the best indicator: “several of the more recent pesticides have a higher specific toxicity, i.e. higher toxicity per unit weight… and therefore sales volume trends may be misleading.”
Fertilisers & manure: The whole idea of using fertiliser is to feed nutrients to plants, and the most common ones contain nitrogen, phosphorus, or potassium, but when we misuse/overuse chemical fertilisers, there are worrying consequences.
Most of the nutrients that end up in the EU water bodies come from nitrogen seeping into waterways and soil particles carrying phosphorus. Agriculture contributes over four times more nitrogen and more than twice as much phosphorus to these waters compared to wastewater.
Fertilisers and manure are also main sources of nitrate (NO₃) concentrations in EU groundwater, whose average levels have not reduced between 2000-2021. Excessive levels of nitrate, either in drinking water or surface water bodies, can be toxic for both human and aquatic life.
“As much as 81% of agricultural nitrogen inputs to aquatic systems are due to intensive livestock farming,” the report said.
How are the soils?
In his best-selling (and controversial) book Regenesis, George Monbiot spent the better part of the first chapter - 26 pages - describing what he found in a kilogram of soil. It’s an indication of how rich and complex the soil ecosystems are.
For decades, we’ve been focusing our attention on fertilisers, technology and new seed varieties to boost yields and productivity, when we should have been caring for soils, which store more carbon than the planet’s atmosphere and vegetation combined. Unfortunately, we have been failing to do that.
At least 63% of soils in the EU are degraded. Many are also losing carbon, mainly as a result of unsustainable land use practices, such as deforestation and intensive agriculture.
Degraded soils are often less able to retain moisture. This could lead to drier conditions that are susceptible to fires. At the same time, fires themselves can exacerbate soil degradation.
About 1 billion tonnes of soil are washed away by erosion every year. Extreme weather events could worsen this.
Nearly three-quarters of agricultural land in the EU + UK faces excessive nitrogen inputs, while extensive areas exhibit phosphorus surpluses. The Po Valley in Italy, the Dutch–German–Danish border areas and north-eastern Spain are areas which exceeded critical loads for nitrogen deposition.
Pesticide residues and other pollutants are also prevalent in agricultural soils.
European soils are a habitat for a vast array of organisms, fauna, and plant species. This biodiversity in turn makes ecosystems resilient and adaptable to environmental changes and disturbances. Alas, this is being threatened.
Agriculture’s impact on soils
A major source of soil degradation is the intensification of agriculture - excessive use of chemical inputs, extensive tillage and monoculture cropping - to feed a growing population.
Land use change: Converting grasslands into farmland leads to a loss of soil carbon stocks (36% within a 20-year period), which in turn influences soil fertility, water dynamics, greenhouse gas emissions, and biodiversity. The overall effects of land use change and land management on soil organic carbon are 7 to 10 times larger than the direct effects of climate change, some scientists have said.
Drained peatlands in the EU account for about 5% of EU emissions. While this land makes up only 2.5% of total agricultural area, it generates around 25% of EU’s total agricultural emissions.
Fertiliser and manure application: Too much nitrogen in soils can lead to the increased emission of N₂O, a potent greenhouse gas which I have written about. Too much phosphorus fertilisers as well as organic fertilisers could introduce heavy metals and other soil pollutants to the soil. Excessive use of ammonium-based fertilisers could cause soil acidification, which in turn causes plants to struggle to get the nutrients they need.
Soil nutrient deficiencies can reduce crop yields and increase the susceptibility of plants to disease. So in the end, excessive and inefficient use of fertilisers and manure ultimately harm both the environment and farmers’ incomes.
Pesticides: Often lead to soil pollution, which refers to having heavy metals, pesticides and industrial chemicals at levels considered risky for human and environmental health.
Pesticide residues are commonly found in nearly 75% of European agricultural soils. In organically managed soils, these are mostly long-banned substances. In conventionally managed soils, there is a mix of compounds currently in use and recently or long banned. Comparison with past assessments indicates a higher prevalence of pesticides residues, and a higher toxicity risk, in 2018 than in 2015.
There is also high copper concentrations particularly in vineyards and orchards in northern Italy and parts of France, probably as a result of fungicide treatment and the wet and humid climate.
Agricultural practices: This includes how farming is done, what is being grown, and what equipment are used.
Tillage disturbs the soil and accelerates surface runoff and soil erosion but it also makes the soil more sensitive to other forms of erosion.
The use of large and heavy machinery (such as tractors and harvesters), continuous grazing and trampling by a large number of livestock, or monocropping (growing the plant in the same field repeatedly) could lead to soil compaction, which affects soil properties, impairs water infiltration, diminishes soil fertility and increases emissions. It can also slash yields by 10% to 15%.
Improper and unsustainable irrigation and poor drainage could lead to soil salinisation, an increase in soluble salt concentration in soil. This affects an estimated 1 million hectares of land in the EU, mainly in the Mediterranean countries.
Climate impacts water and soils
Water scarcity: A reduction in overall annual rainfall is expected in parts of Europe, which will widen the gap between the demand and supply of water. Southern Europe is already facing this, but climate change is likely to extend the experience to other parts of Europe, including Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Poland and Romania.
Droughts, which used to last a few months, are now lasting longer, sometimes stretching over multiple years, like the 2018-2020 drought in central Europe and the 2022-2023 drought in northern Italy, France, Portugal and Spain. Given how thirsty agriculture is, this will pose serious problems in our ability to grow food.
Soil Erosion: When it does rain, it will come in heavy bursts, leading to more intense floods, scientists say. Countries in northern, central and southern Europe are also predicted to experience an increase in frequency and intensity of storms.
But heavy rain does not infiltrate soils and therefore, will not recharge groundwater levels. Instead, it will flow to rivers, bringing the fertile topsoil with them.
Soil biodiversity: The rich array of life forms in soils, including microorganisms such as fungi and bacteria, is vital for the provision of ecosystem services such as food production, medicine discovery and water regulation. But soil biodiversity is already under threat from urbanisation, agricultural intensification and pollution. Climate change will exacerbate these risks.
What can be done
Develop more water-efficient and drought-resistant crops and build water storage in soils.
Reuse water.
Reduce how much meat, egg, and dairy we eat because of the outsized impacts they have on water and soils.
“Restored wetlands emit less CO₂ and rewetting 35% of the total area of peatlands used for agriculture in the EU could reduce their emissions by 25%.”
Use fewer synthetic inputs and more organic ones, and fully implement and further strengthen “existing EU directives such as the Nitrates Directive and the Sustainable Use of Pesticides Directive”. But as regular readers of Thin Ink knows, the pesticides directive under the Farm to Fork Strategy has been put on ice.
My two cents: Let’s grow a spine and do something.
Thin’s Pickings - Europe Edition
On Edge: Europe’s farmers at a mental health breaking point - Solomon
“Extreme weather patterns are taking a particularly devastating toll on farmers in Europe’s most vulnerable countries… And national governments seem unwilling to address this troubling reality,” said a team of six journalists who delved into the impacts of climate change on farmers’ mental health in Greece, Spain, Romania, Czechia, and Poland.
Op-Ed: Time for a Rethink to Reverse the Rapid Decline of Farming in Europe - Arc 2020
Marco Contiero, EU Policy Director on Agriculture at the Greenpeace European Unit, writes about Europe’s increasingly consolidated farming landscape, based on the findings of a newly released report.
The report analysed information in the European Commission’s farm accountancy data network (FADN) over a period of a decade and a half.
It “shows that millions of small-scale, commercial family farms have seen their profits decreasing and are struggling to stay afloat. In many cases they have been forced out of business. In contrast, a minority of large-scale and often environmentally destructive farms are pocketing most of the profits the food and farming sector delivers.”
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