This Father’s Day weekend, a 5 km walkathon was organised at Oak Point Park, Plano in the Dallas Fort Worth neighbourhood. With more than 1200 registrations, this Walkathon was a special event organised to commemorate Father’s Day by raising awareness for soil health and to ensure food security for future generations. The walk was flagged off by Deputy Mayor of Plano ProTem Maria Tu amidst sailing hot air balloons. In her address to the participants, she appreciated the efforts being made to educate people about how to maintain healthy and sustainable soils for generations to come. “They are inheriting this beautiful Earth from us and we are ensuring that it is healthy for them,” she emphasised.
The event was also attended by special guests Ms. Shabnam Modgil- CEO of Radio Caravan, Mr. Sandeep Srivastava- U.S. Congress candidate District 3, Mr. Gavin Dawson- radio show host at 105.3 The Fan, and Mr. Brad Voss- County Extension Agent for Horticulture with Texas A&M Agrilife. Mr. Voss, who is a Soil Science expert spoke to the audience about the unique nature of soil in Texas and how we have broken the chain of returning organic matter to soil; which is currently between .5 and 1% – and thus, dangerously close to becoming sand. Mr. Voss explained why and how it is necessary to keep it healthy and alive by keeping the organic content more than 3 %. “Soil is a living, breathing thing,” he said, “feed your soil, and it will feed you.”
The walkathon, was a part of a larger movement -Save Soil, an initiative launched by global leader and visionary Sadhguru. It is a worldwide effort to reach and educate over 3.5 billion people around the globe, by rallying citizen support and advocating policies that support soil health.
The approach of this movement is unique in that it fosters involvement through inclusiveness, joy and inspiration. The movement, through citizen participation, aims to urge and support governments in formulating policies that will address soil health in their country and make farming activity more soil friendly, and to halt and reverse further soil degradation. The primary recommendation of the Save Soil Movement is for governments across the world to legislate policies that will mandate a minimum of 3-6% organic content in all agricultural soil in their country, an achievable target if the world acts now.
A wide variety of public figures, from His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama to leading primatologist Dr. Jane Goodall, from author Deepak Chopra to Salesforce’s Marc Benioff, are supporting Save Soil and its goals, giving voice to what has, to date, been an entirely silent ecological disaster.
The next decade is our only chance to overcome the soil crisis.
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