Today is World Soil Day! Since 2014, the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) has hosted this international day celebrating soil. This year’s theme is “Soils: Where Food Begins,” highlighting the connection between healthy ecosystems and human well-being. Today, World Soil Day brings awareness to the growing challenges in soil management and encouraging societies to improve soil health.

Click through to learn more about how important healthy soil is for our food system, our own health, and our survival. For a quick infographic on the importance of balanced nutrients in soil, see here.

How can we support soil fertility to ensure healthy food for ourselves and future generations?

Here at LRSWMD we’re proud to turn your food scraps into nutrient dense, soil-building compost.

Food scraps represent a valuable resource that can be used to restore vitamins and minerals to the soil and to support future harvests. When they’re thrown away, those nutrients are lost.

Compost helps rebuilds soil, including by restoring micronutrients, preventing soil erosion, and suppressing disease. The micronutrients provided by the organic matter in compost are critical for the health of the billions of organisms in the soil who help produce strong and nutritious plants.

Thank you for composting! Not only does keeping your food scraps out of the landfill prevent climate-changing methane emissions, but if you compost at home or bring them to a composter, it keeps resources available to grow nutritious food to keep ourselves and future generations healthy.