In September we’re launching Sacred Earth’s Biochar Soil Booster, an easy-to-apply garden product that improves soil fertility and, as a result, plant health and crop yields. It’ll be available from our online shop, as well as selected local retail outlets (details to be revealed!). This is the first in a new series of weekly blogs in the build-up to the launch. In these blogs we’ll be providing info on all things biochar, soil health and the environment. This week we’re sharing our thoughts on why we think soil is the new plastic…

The tide on plastic is finally turning. Thanks to David Attenborough’s Blue Planet, people in the UK are now aware of how devastating it is to marine life, human health and the environment. As a result, there is a growing anti-plastics movement, with big retailers promising to eliminate plastic packaging and corporate coffee chains ditching plastic straws. The BBC’s own Plastic Watch and Ellen McCarthy’s Plastic Pact both came into being on the back of this surging awareness. Campaigns to make schools and entire towns plastic-free are enjoying success.

As nature lovers, here at Sacred Earth we’re obviously really pleased about all this. But we’re hoping it’s just the start of something much bigger still. We’re hoping that it’s the start of a seismic shift towards widespread action to deal with the existential environmental problems we face. The truth is that plastic is just one of a series of interconnected issues threatening life on our beautiful planet.

The next big eco story to capture the public consciousness should be the one that’s happening right beneath our feet. The very earth we walk on is under threat. Research from the United Nations shows that a third of all soil on our planet is ‘severely degraded’. If we don’t change our ways, in the UK we only have 40 years until our farmlands become infertile. Monoculture farming combined with the use of pesticides and chemical fertilisers has depleted soils of the mycorrhizal fungi and other beneficial micro-organisms essential to plant and crop health. Much garden soil is unhealthy too, because compost hasn’t been added, weed killer has been applied or it simply hasn’t been tended carefully enough.

It takes only a cursory knowledge of biology to understand how grave a problem this is, not just for humanity, but also for all the amazing plants and creatures with which we share our world. Without healthy soil, our entire ecosystem will collapse.

This is, however, a problem that can be solved. There are a whole raft of things that can be done. Farmers should go organic and reintroduce crop rotations and permaculture farming methods. Another part of the solution is the application of biochar – a special kind of charcoal made at low temperatures that is scientifically proven to boost soil health.

Biochar has the added environmental benefit of locking in carbon and so helping with CO2 emissions, thereby combatting two of our biggest environmental problems in one go.

This is why, on 1^st September, we’re launching Sacred Earth’s Biochar Soil Booster, which will come in biodegradable packaging and sell at £9.99 for 3kg. It’s a highly potent soil improver – containing biochar made from the wood offcuts arising from the coppicing and pollarding of our woodlands, combined with seaweed, biodynamic compost preparations and comfrey tea.

To mark its launch, we are going to run a hands-on biochar making workshop on 1^st September. Our founder Phil Greenwood will show how to make biochar in our on-site kiln and also talk through the other special ingredients that can be added to it to maximise soil fertility.  For more information on this workshop, please click through here.