YORKTON - Apparently Dec. 5, was designated World Soil Day by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization to celebrate this critical resource and raise awareness of the challenges of protecting it.
Now I am not personally sure designating a day to raise awareness accomplishes a great deal anymore.
There might have been a time when marking a particular day had people pausing at least to consider what it was all about.
But now rare is the date on the calendar throughout the entire year when something isn’t being marked.
For example, according to dayspedia.com “Hug Day is celebrated on January 21 in the United States and is an informal holiday dedicated to hugging as a way to show love, support, and friendship. The day was founded in 1986 by Kevin Zaborne, who wanted to create an opportunity for people to share warmth and care through hugs.”
And while fans of flapjacks might rejoice the same site notes “National Maple Syrup Day is on December 17. Maple syrup is made from the xylem sap of one of the three maple tree varieties: sugar maple, black maple, or red maple. Whether you like your maple syrup as a topping on pancakes, waffles, or vanilla ice cream, enjoy some today in honour of National Maple Syrup Day!”
No offence to maple syrup producers, but a day to celebrate the sticky stuff seems a bit extreme.
The result is so many days, some created by international organizations such as the UN, and other by groups and associations looking to promote what they do, that it has become too easy for most to become tone death to any day designation.
That’s unfortunate because there are some days that are focused on very important issues.
Again as an example; “The National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women, also known informally as White Ribbon Day (Jour du Ruban Blanc), is a day commemorated in Canada each December 6, the anniversary of the 1989 École Polytechnique massacre, in which armed student Marc Lépine murdered fourteen women and injured ten others in the name of “fighting feminism”. The commemoration date was established by the Parliament of Canada in 1991,” details dayspedia.com
From a farmer perspective World Soil Day should be an important one – although I’d wonder how many paused for even a minute to consider the day last week?
But that said, soil is such a finite and critical resource to the survival of life on this planet, it deserves to cared for as best we can, and desertification, urban sprawl, deforestation, preventable erosion and other forces continued to negatively impact the resource.
So the theme of the day this year ‘Caring for Soils: Measure, Monitor, Manage,’ focused on how we might do things better in terms “of accurate soil data and information in understanding soils characteristics and supporting informed decision-making on sustainable soil management for food security,” noted a producer.com article capturing the need succinctly.
Soil and its secure future is our future too.
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