Earth Day 2027
Healthy Soils
Healthy food starts with healthy ground.
Soil is a living system, and most of what we eat depends on it. Learn how regenerative farming, biodiversity and water work together to keep land productive — and what happens when they do not.
Why it matters
Nearly all of our food comes from a thin layer of living soil.
Soil stores carbon and water, feeds the plants we eat, and holds a quarter of the planet’s biodiversity. Treated well it rebuilds itself; treated badly it blows away.
Erosion, intensive tillage, monoculture and chemical inputs are wearing that layer thin, while the farmers closest to the problem are often the least able to afford the shift to practices that would repair it.
- 95%
- Of the food we eat is produced, directly or indirectly, on soil.
- Source: The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
- A third
- Of the world’s soils are already degraded.
- Source: The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
- 1,000 years
- Is how long nature can take to build a few centimetres of topsoil.
- Source: UN Environment Programme
Our focus areas
What keeps soil alive
The areas of farming and land use we’re focusing on.
- Regenerative agriculture
- Soil carbon and climate resilience
- Biodiversity above and below ground
- Water, drought and irrigation
- Pesticides and soil health
- Composting and organic matter
- Smallholder and family farms
- Agroforestry and cover cropping
- Seed diversity
- Land restoration
Test your knowledge
How much do you know about the ground your food grows in?
Take the Healthy Soils quiz: 8 questions, less than 5 minutes.
FAQ
What is Healthy Soils?
Healthy Soils is one of the three pillars of Food for Our Planet™, EARTHDAY.ORG’s global theme for Earth Day 2027. It is about the living system most of our food depends on, and the farming practices that either rebuild it or wear it out.
What does Healthy Soils focus on?
Regenerative agriculture, soil carbon, biodiversity, water and drought, the effect of pesticides on soil life, composting, agroforestry, seed diversity and land restoration.
What is regenerative agriculture?
Farming that leaves the soil better than it found it — cover crops, less tillage, rotations and reintegrated livestock, so organic matter, water-holding capacity and biodiversity all build up season after season.
Why does soil matter for the climate?
Soil is one of the largest stores of carbon on land. Degraded soil releases it; well-managed soil takes it back, and holds more water when the rain does come.
How can I take part?
Start with what you buy and where it comes from, then look at the land nearest you — a garden, a school plot, a community farm. Our toolkits have practical starting points.