From Cosmos to Compost

With John Crawford, Professor of Strategy and Technology at Glasgow University

John Crawford’s career started in astronomy and physics. In his words, he was doing stuff to do with “the clustering of galaxies, and what these clusterings tell us about the origin of the universe.” Big things, you know. Then John started learning about soil. He thought: “It’s also a clustered thing, like, if you could measure the way it’s clustered (the health and spontaneous life) you might be able to tell something about where it comes from.”

That’s where the soil obsession started for John, exploring the virtually unknown, mind-blowingly expansive, network of life, that is soil. Back in 2016 biologists at Indiana University said there’s an estimated 99.999 percent of species which have yet to be discovered. Many of these live in the soil. According to Wired, the same scientists said “it's not uncommon for a gram of soil to contain one trillion cells and 10,000 species of bacteria.”

In terms of the human experience, Crawford says that “soil is the basis of natural fertility. Everything comes from the soil, everything goes back into the soil.” On earth, soil is where life comes from, essentially. But Crawford believes soil could be a solu- tion to helping the planet (as we know it) survive too. Brains included, Crawford thinks soil is “the most complex and important biomaterial on the planet”. And the oldest signs of life, too. “After trees, soil is the next most significant nature based solution” he says. Given farmers are custodians of much of the soil on the planet, ensuring as many as possible are conscious of ways to improve biodiversity and re- generate the health of their soil would have a monumental impact in helping to slow, if not halt, climate change.

As for those not farming, Crawford has a simple way of helping to increase biodiversity in fields: “Eat better. Eat more plants, add more diversity to your diet. If you're eating a more diverse diet, there has to be more diversity in the field. Not just for yourself, but for everything you know.”