World Soil Day: a recurrence to remind us to put this important resource at the center of our efforts

Today, December 5, is World Soil Day, established in 2013 by the United Nations to focus the attention on the importance of having healthy soils and their sustainable management.
This year's campaign, whose motto is "Let's Keep Soil Alive, Protect Soil Biodiversity", aims to raise public awareness of the importance of maintaining healthy ecosystems, addressing the challenges in soil management, fighting biodiversity loss and encouraging governments, organizations, communities and individuals around the world to work to improve the health of this non-renewable resource.

At European level, the Commission has included soil health and nutrition among the five main "missions" or challenges to be addressed. To provide concrete answers, the Mission Board for Soil Health and Food, a working group of experts, including Catia Bastioli, AD Novamont, was set up to assist the Commission in the preparation of legislative proposals and policy initiatives.
"Caring for soil is caring for life" is the name the Board has given to the mission, which aims to ensure that "by 2030 75% of soils are healthy and able to provide essential ecosystem services", such as the provision of food and other biomass, supporting biodiversity, storing and regulating the flow of water, or mitigating the effects of climate.