KindHarvest summary: In an August 2022 address to the World Congress of Soil Science in Glasgow, the then Prince of Wales urged a shift towards farming systems that restore soil and work more closely with natural cycles.
What the address said
The speech presented healthy soil as infrastructure for food production, carbon storage, water management and resilience to drought and flooding. It warned that soil degradation and pollution place those functions at risk.
The practices highlighted included more diverse plant communities, grazing livestock within suitable systems, legumes, cover crops, crop residues and mulches. The central argument was that policy and farm management should recognise soil as a living resource rather than a passive growing medium.
How to read this source
This was a public statement and an expression of policy direction, rather than a research paper or a farm trial. Its value lies in showing the prominence soil health and regenerative agriculture had gained in public debate by 2022. Individual practices still require local evidence, agronomic planning and careful measurement.
Source and credit
This KindHarvest Team news brief is based on reporting by Philip Clarke for Farmers Weekly, published 5 August 2022. The speaker was Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, at the time of the address. Read the original Farmers Weekly article.