Advancing soil literacy
There is a hypothesis that soil degradation and misuse is the result of a lack of education and awareness of the importance of healthy soils to society. This is compounded by market forces, the competition for land and an increasingly urban society that is distant from the appreciation of ecosystem services and soil functions in their day-to-day lives.
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The meeting held on the 13th -14th of March 2025 was an opportunity to share and explore best practices from a range of diverse perspectives and targeted stakeholders, as well as reflections towards a future roadmap of possible actions.
While included with topics such as curing cancer, ocean well-being and climate change in the group of Horizon Europe Missions, soil lacks the same visibility or consciousness. Soils are often regarded as complex and technical, which might make it less accessible to the general public. However, complex and technical issues such as cosmology, human health, climate change, and even dinosaurs, are regularly presented to the public. Political inaction reflects this lack of interest by society. Even now, after the Green Deal, policy documents still emerge with a focus only on air and water yet healthy soils underpin our very fabric.
Both the EU Soil Strategy 2030 and the Mission Soil have increasing soil awareness as key objectives. Despite many notable success stories, initiatives are only reaching a fraction of the population.
In conjunction with the European Network on Soil Awareness, the workshop would like to explore how the EU Soil Strategy and the Mission Soil can really drive a revolution in soil awareness by taking soil literacy and citizen engagement to a new level.
The meeting will be an opportunity to share and explore best practices from a range of diverse perspectives and targeted stakeholders, as well as reflections towards a future roadmap of possible actions.
Participants have a track-record in soil awareness raising while participating Mission Soil Projects have a strong soil awareness, citizen engagement or educational component.
13-14 March 2025:
ADVANCING SOIL LITERACY
Details and agenda here 
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- Advancing Soil literacy Workshop - Arwyn Jones
- Mission Soil_Advancing soil literacy workshop - Marialuisa Dal Poz
- HoliSoils - Aleksi Lehtonen
- HuMUS - Annalaura Vannuccini
- Mission Soil_How can artistic research play a role in understanding human-soil relations? - Alexandra Toland
- TERRASAFE - Charlotte Chivers >
- Cranfield University - Dan Evans
- ELSA - Detlef Gerdts
- ENSA - Gabriele Broll
- MATE - Michéli Erika
- PREPSOIL workshop - Flavien Poinçot
- LOESS - Norbert Steinhaus
- SOILL & the Mission Soil Living Labs - Giulia Campodonico
- FAO - Isabelle Verbeke
- RE SOIL - Margherita Caggiano
- UNESCO - Francesca Bampa
- SOLO - Monica A. Farfan
- SOIL TRIBES - Patricia Carvalho
- SOILSCAPE & AFES - Megane Roncier
- ISRIC - Stephan Mantel
- CURIOSOIL - Sónia Rodrigues
- ECHO - Tanja Mimmo
(Note that the persons mentioned above have given their explicit consent to have their names and presentations mentioned in ESDAC)
Some of our collaborators:
