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A tale about a yogi and his global movement to ‘save soil’
The law regulates that food lands must be utilized to guarantee land and water conservation, which includes protection and conservation of resources as well as land and water quality management.
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Small step: Soil scientists say that planting trees is only part of the solution to overcoming land degradation. (Unsplash/Pema Gyamtsho)
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limate change is a crucial environmental issue that is very relevant as it causes various disasters such as floods, landslides, drought and typhoons. Furthermore, research results show that land degradation is a time bomb created by climate change.
Based on the data, 95 percent of food consumed originates from the soil, as soil is the basis of the land ecosystem. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, currently the world’s soil has been degraded by 52 percent
Soil, with its various micro-organisms, is not an inanimate object. Millions of micro-organisms live in each span of land. The soil on earth is only predicted to survive for up to 60 years. The ongoing soil degradation will reduce the nutrition we consume. This has happened in many countries. It is worse if a country is experiencing turmoil caused by war, so it is essential food self-sufficiency is achieved.
However, self-sufficiency cannot be achieved if plant production is not maximized as a result of unfertile soil conditions. According to Dodik Ridho Nurrochmat, a professor at the Forestry Department, the Bogor Agriculture University (IPB), the higher the welfare rate, the more people care about environmental sustainability. Besides zero environmental degradation, environmental restoration also needs to be carried out in accordance with the limits of human adaptability. It is useless to talk about Indonesia becoming the fifth-largest economy by 2045 if we do not consider soil extinction an urgency.
After several years of debates among experts and scientists, finally in 2022, a yogi of global reputation, a humanitarian and a spiritual leader named Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev successfully raised the soil issue to the surface through the Save Soil movement. This initiative is part of the Conscious Planet Movement.
Since starting on March 21 in London, Sadhguru has been riding a motorcycle for a phenomenal trip from Europe to the Middle East that spans 3,000 kilometers in 100 days to promote the movement. On World Environment Day on June 5, 65-year-old Sadhguru announced that the Save Soil movement had received official support from 74 countries and 2.5 million people.
What are the commitments? Basically, Sadhguru is inviting people and governments all over the world to commit to conducting a global effort to restore and rejuvenate the earth, especially soil from extinction.
