Of equal interest for organic and conventional farms.
Instructions for practitioners. 35 p. with coloured illustrations, incl. storage medium with example pictures. 24,80 € plus postage.

The soil analysis described here provides the practitioner with comprehensive, meaningful information on the condition of soil structure and soil functions. It provides target values and stress values and thus considerably simplifies both the analysis and the evaluation. It makes it easier to decide which techniques can be chosen to maintain or improve soil functions. The success of the measures can always be checked directly and independently by quickly examining the current soil condition.

• No high technical effort!
• No cumbersome sampling!
• No external examination!
• No analysis costs!
• USB stick with sample images and additional information included!

More information here: “Organic Farm Knowledge”

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‘Carbon farming’ is very much in vogue right now in agricultural policy and practice. The aim is to bind CO2 from the atmosphere in the soil over the long term through agricultural measures and thus slow down the climate crisis. Whether and to what extent this is possible is the subject of controversial scientific debate. At the same time, the question arises as to whether it makes political sense to rely on carbon farming. Beste identifies major gaps for a climate-smart agriculture. For example, reducing animal numbers, promoting pasture farming or reduction targets for the production and application of synthetic nitrogen fertiliser.

The whole publication you can find here.

Chapter “Carbon farming – climate protection or greenwashing?”:

The transition to pesticide-free agriculture is central to a sustainable land and food policy that fulfils the EU’s Farm-to-Fork strategy and can secure sufficient harvests in the long term in view of population growth and climate change. At the same time, it represents an enormous challenge for farmers, who need to completely re-evaluate their production and application practices. This requires a fundamental rethink in European agricultural and chemicals policy. The concept of One Health makes it clear that individual human health should not be considered in isolation, but is closely linked to the health of plants, animals, fellow human beings and the environment.

Link to the article

ARC2020 is a European discussion platform on sustainable ideas and practices for tomorrow’s agriculture.

Indoor farming is a growth area that is being proposed as a solution to a number of problems in the agricultural and food industry. But what is it actually, and how sustainable is it really?

Link to artikel

Soil protection and land conservation were first given central importance in the European Union by the 6th EU Environmental Action Programme in 2001. In this program, the European Commission was asked to develop a comprehensive thematic soil protection strategy for Europe. The Communication to the Member States and the Parliament on soil protection “Towards a specific soil protection strategy” prepared by the Commission in 2002 represented a first step. After protracted negotiations and a withdrawal of a legislative proposal by the EU Commission in 2014, the EU is currently embarking on a renewed legislative initiative.
Due to the EU candidate status Ukraine received in June 2022, it is of high importance for the Ukrainian partners to learn more about the EU requirements and strategies in the field of soil protection. This paper aims to provide an overview of the status of EU legislation on soil and to list and describe further legislation relevant for soil as well as existing and planned strategies (e.g. within the new European Green Deal) related to soil protection.

The paper and a presentation are also available in German and Ukrainian.

There is an unprecedented interest in nature-based solutions for climate change mitigation and adaptation. But something very important is often missing from discussions of such solutions: the role of healthy soils. As habitats for plants and animals, as regulators of climate and water, and as the foundation of terrestrial ecosystems and the vast majority of our food production, soils are critical to all ecosystem services – including those that humans depend on for survival.

Yet soil health is in jeopardy in many parts of the world, depleted by decades of industrial agriculture and land degradation, and further threatened by climate change. One third of the earth’s land is already degraded. This degraded land is home to about 3 billion people. At the same time, healthy soils can boost resilience to climate shocks and increase species diversity both above- and below-ground, making them a critical element of policies and practices for climate change adaptation and mitigation, biodiversity conservation, water resource management and sustainable development.

This guidebook aims to demonstrate the importance of sustainable soil management (SSM) for adaptation to climate change, biodiversity conservation and the achievement of long-term food security. By adopting nature-based solutions such as ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA), farmers can dramatically increase their productivity while adapting to climate risks.

It has been clear for many years that agriculture in Europe needs to become more sustainable and requires fundamental change. In recent years, more and more “innovative” techniques or products have been presented as THE one big solution – examples include precision farming, indoor farming, new genetic engineering or carbon farming. It is often suggested that the problems of the agricultural system can now be solved, although only partial areas are affected. Can carbon farming make agriculture climate-friendly? Is indoor farming sustainable? Can new genetic engineering be used to breed more resistant plants? Does precision farming solve the issue of over-fertilisation?

This study takes a closer look at some of the currently prominently discussed technical “sustainability solutions” and asks critical questions about their effectiveness. Do techno-fixes prominently discussed in policy papers and the media bring agriculture into harmony with ecosystems, animal welfare and societal needs?

Presentation Dr. Beste in English

Agroforestry is positively highlighted in many adopted texts and directives from Brussels and is also mentioned in the framework of the CAP and proposed as a possible measure of the Eco-Schemes. Despite its undisputed benefits, it is still largely unknown. What’s more surprising is that the current process of CAP strategic plans seems to virtually overlook it – so is it all spin, no substance?

Link to the article

ARC2020 is a European discussion platform on sustainable ideas and practices for tomorrow’s agriculture.

Critical position paper of German environmental NGOs and scientists on CO2 certificates.

The EU is promoting carbon farming as a new business model to deliver climate action in agriculture. To ensure the EU harnesses the full win-win-win potential of carbon farming, the EEB sets out the concrete solutions carbon farming should prioritise, and makes five key recommendations in this report.

A lot of money is invested in building dams and retention polders to protect against flooding, in technically complex runoff regulation – for example in vineyards – or in converting farmland in floodplains into grassland.
Nevertheless, such measures do not combat the causes of soil-related flood generation. Nor are they a means of combating erosion, and by simply diverting the urgently needed water, the crops on the land gain nothing and the risk of flooding increases. One factor falls completely outside the focus of the EU Flood Management Directive or even the soil management regulations in the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP): soil compaction. Soils in many intensively farmed regions of Europe, including Germany, are suffering from increasing compaction. Soils no longer hold water in the land. The “rain digestibility” decreases. Something can be done about this….

Link to the articel

ARC2020 is an European discussion platform on sustainable ideas and practices for tomorrow’s agriculture.

Link to the article

ARC2020 is a European discussion platform on sustainable ideas and practices for tomorrow’s agriculture.

The “digitalisation of agriculture” or so-called “precision farming” is loudly and repeatedly praised from many sides as the solution to the current environmental problems of agriculture.
High-tech in the field is supposed to protect the climate, the environment and biodiversity. But there is little technical discussion about whether the environmental benefits of these innovations have actually been proven, who has access to these technologies and who controls the data. At what scale can precision agriculture techniques be effective? How well do they really help to make agriculture more sustainable? Are the loudly expressed praises justified?

Link to article

ARC2020 is a European discussion platform on sustainable ideas and practices for tomorrow’s agriculture.

Link to the 3-part series

ARC2020 is a European discourse platform on sustainable ideas and practices for tomorrow’s agriculture.

In Germany, the study was nominated for the Salus Media Award 2019. This Award honours commendable publications on sustainable agriculture.

The study refers to many facts which show why the system of so-called “modern”
intensive agriculture is climate-damaging instead of climate-smart, and why technical fixes, using Big Data, precision farming and increased output per hectare or per cow cannot fundamentally change this.

It also explains how agriculture and animal husbandry can be made really sustainable, climate-friendly and climate-adapted, why cattle should not be demonised for this, and how agricultural systems can be made “resilient” – i.e. resistant and flexible so that they can compensate for extreme weather conditions for as long as possible.

Video statement on the study by Dr Luca Montanarella, responsible for the European Soil Data Centre (ESDAC) at the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (JRC) in German

ARC2020 is a European discourse platform on sustainable ideas and practices for tomorrow’s agriculture.

Link to arc2020.eu/andrea-beste-soil-matters

Over the last 15 years, Andrea Beste examined more than 400 sites in Europe – mainly in Germany – on the condition of the soil structure. This was done on behalf of food companies, universities and farm advisory services or as part of training seminars on soil protection for farmers. In this study, the freelance scientist and consultant presents current data material and conclusions from various European research projects on the condition of soils that have been completed in recent years. The results are worrying. Many soils are showing real symptoms of burn-out. In view of climate change, we need particularly fit and healthy soils in Europe to produce enough food, guarantee clean drinking water and prevent flood damage. The author also describes which therapy the soils in Europe urgently need in order to recover. The methods presented are not new. Some have long been overestimated or even misjudged. Others, more effective, are still not applied.
Soil – the basis of all our lives – still has too little lobby in Europe!

See also the Report of the EU SoilService Projekt.

Complete Soil Atlas

Complete Soil Atlas

Dr Luca Montanarella, responsible for the European Soil Data Centre (ESDAC) at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) in Ispra and member of the board of the International Technical Panel on Soil (ITPS) as part of the Global Soil Partnership, says in an interview in December 2018:
>> I fully agree with the critical assessment of “biochar” use in this publication. <<

In German
Please use DeepL to translate

The scale of meat production and consumption that has prevailed in the European Union for years no longer has anything to do with the sensible use of pastureland for natural meat production. High soya imports were and are today an essential prerequisite for the development of factory farming. These farming methods are not only extremely intensive in terms of raw materials and energy, harmful to the climate and the environment, and full of violence against animals – they are also unacceptable with regard to the world food security question. They lead to the displacement of small farmers in the countries the soya is grown, cause severe environmental pollution and poisoning of humans.

Europe’s dependence on protein imports for its immense meat production also entails great risks for many European farmers. The credo of recent years has been that they should produce for a world market price that does not cover their European production costs anyway; not to mention profit. Moreover, in this system based on “remote feeding”, animal production in Europe is directly dependent on price fluctuations on the world markets. Many farms cannot absorb this and give up.

We have to get animal husbandry and milk and meat production back on track. We need to give agriculture a perspective for a more independent form of feeding with more regional added value and more quality. Climate, soil, water and biodiversity could also benefit. What we need is a meaningful strengthening of domestic protein crop cultivation!

This study is intended as a first step in this direction. It provides an overview of the status quo regarding legumes in Europe and identifies the necessary fields of action for an efficient strengthening of protein crop cultivation.

This is the full English version of the Dissertation.

The conference proceedings are available here

You can find the toolkit here

Same content, but somewhat more detailed here: