A new group of “Soil Champions” has been formed to promote the benefits of soil health.
This new committee — announced Wednesday at the Ag in Motion farm show at Langham, Sask. — will work to ensure the care and protection of Canada’s agricultural soil through education, knowledge transfer, forums for collaboration and other activities.
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“There’s evidence of a link between soil health and healthy people,” Soil Champions member and Soil Conservation Council of Canada chair (SCCC) Ian Boyd said. The Soil Champions will work as a committee of the SCCC.
This new group was sparked by a $300,000 donation from Rev. Ruth Butt, a Woodstock, Ont. farmer with a long-standing interest in soil conservation.
“Soil is important,” Boyd said. “Societies live and die by soil.”
The SCCC said the new group is expected to bring a soil health message “beyond the farm and to the broader agriculture industry, food processors, consumers and government.”
Along with Boyd, the Soil Champions committee members are Jay Bradshaw, past president of Syngenta Canada; Ontario farmer and conservation advocate Don Lobb; Andrew Graham, retiring executive director of the Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association; SCCC executive director Andrew Graham; and Lynda Tityk, representing Glacier FarmMedia.
