CAMPAIGN Soil science/Green economy
‘The skin of the earth, the bringer of all life’
Thanks to soil, Earth harbours life and it is the only planet known to do so, yet nobody has written about the evolution of soil before.
That’s about to radically change because Unite’s own soil scientist Dr Charlie Clutterbuck, has written a new book.
On the origin of soils due to be published by 5m Books in the autumn, will mark an ambition going back six decades.
That’s when, over a period of three years, Charlie counted half a million small soil animals largely consisting of springtails, (which Charlie calculates have been around for 400m years,) nematodes and mites.
One group of mites, called oribatida, are possibly the most important group of animals on earth, according to socio-biologist EO Wilson.
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I was certain someone would write a book on soil evolution, but it has never happened. As I approach very old age I knew I must do it
Dr Charlie Clutterbuck, Unite activist and soil scientist
Charlie told Landworker, “I was certain someone would write a book on soil evolution, but it has never happened. As I approach very old age I knew I must do it.”
Charlie has modelled his style of writing on Charles Darwin’s On the origin of species classic book ‘that ordinary people were able to understand but also ensured learned scientists could learn a lot from.’
Charlie is convinced it will also be possible to produce a children’s book graphically explaining what’s going on beneath their feet and why it is essential to preserve this unique environment.
It is only in relatively recent times that soil began to be universally recognised as living matter.
Yet, Charlie calculates it first began to perform such a vital role 500m years ago. That’s double the time since insects first began to flourish.
“Insects must have come from soil, the skin of the earth and the bringer of all life.” states Charlie.
Sadly, soil’s value appears to have been treated like dirt. Worldwide over 2,000 gigatons (a gigaton = one billion metric tonnes) of soil has been lost in the last 40 years; that took between 400,000 and 4m years to
34 uniteLANDWORKER Summer 2026
build. That amounts to a gigaton of carbon a year.
There is talk about soil ‘sequestration’ – capturing carbon – and this was at the forefront of the Davos World Economic Forum a couple of years back. But they see the answer in ‘carbon trading’ now a trillion-pound market.
How and where can we raise awareness of this? The answer ‘lies in the soil’ as Arthur Fallowfield in BBC’s Beyond our Ken comedy series would have said.
Who better to see what is going on, than farmworkers? Why are we not training them, and paying them, to see where and how the degradation and erosion of 3m tonnes of soil in the UK each year is occurring.
Instead of contributing to the carbon trading market, why not invest directly in those best placed to see what is going on, so they can suggest ways to improve it.
This has been achieved in places such as the Incredible Farm in Todmorden where Charlie is a board member. The farm now grows 1m tonnes of food on previously infertile land. It’s a case that is made in On the origin of soils.
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