Regenerative farming 'Soil health should be a national security issue'

Nick Padwick hunches over a microscope, examining a sample of compost he's made on his Norfolk farm. "Look at that bad boy. That's a bacteria-feeding nematode!" he exclaims. "Stunning fungal hyphae," he adds.

- Ben Martynoga

Padwick, farm manager at Wild Ken Hill, Norfolk, since 2018, is part of a growing movement of farmers who are taking a deep interest in the microscopic soil life forms that their livelihoods depend upon.

This approach to regenerative farming sees nurturing diverse soil communities - from bacteria and fungi to microscopic animals and worms - as an essential prerequisite for growing healthy foods with minimal or no use of agrochemicals or soil-damaging machinery.

For Padwick, 59, this represents a dramatic shift after nearly four decades in conventional agriculture - the very systems that experts now blame for devastating global soils. "I really have been a part of it," he admits. "I cringe every time I think of it."

The stakes couldn't be higher. Recent estimates say more than 60% of EU agricultural soils are degraded, with about 40% of UK soils similarly damaged. Globally, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization warns that 90% of the world's topsoils could be at risk by 2050 - a crisis intensified by accelerating global heating.

All this has implications not just for food security, but also biodiversity, water quality, flood mitigation, climate resilience and greenhouse gas emissions. As Prof Richard Bardgett, a soil ecologist at Lancaster University, says: "Few things matter more to humans than their relationship with the soil."