Would life as we know it be possible without soil?

Would life as we know it be possible without soil?  Whether we realise it or not, soils are the quiet partners behind nearly everything we eat, drink, or use. They function as the living skin of the Earth, storing, filtering, and enriching water, supplying organic matter and nutrients, anchoring roots, and hosting organisms that cycle carbon and nitrogen. Together, these processes make plant growth possible – most land plants depend on soil to grow. From croplands and orchards to grasslands and forests, soils support the ecosystems that enable and sustain human societies. 

Many connections are indirect. Pollinators depend on flowering plants rooted in soil; livestock graze on grasslands nourished by soil, producing food such as milk and cheese; and forests supply timber while regulating climate and water cycles, all of which depend on soil.  

Even products we rarely associate with soils have their origins there. The honey in your kitchen depends on bees visiting flowers that grow in soil, and a cotton T-shirt begins with plants rooted in agricultural soils. Every drop of drinking water we rely on is provided by soils through filtration and mineral enrichment as water passes through it. Even when food is processed, packaged, or shipped across continents, its story often begins much earlier – with the soil that enabled plants to grow. 

Left: © Soil profile – a vertical slice of soil in Austria more than 1 meter deep, by Angelika Hromatka, BOKU University 

Upper right: © Meadow by charcoal soul, CC BY-ND 2.0, no changes were made to the original photo 

Bottom right: © Cows, by Lars Veldscholte, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0, no changes were made to the original photo 

© Landscape with open soil profile, Switzerland. Gabriela Brändle, Urs Zihlmann (Agroscope) und Andreas Chervet (LANAT, Amt für Landwirtschaft und Natur des Kantons Bern).  

In this lesson, you will trace everyday products back to their soil-dependent origins. You will discover how soil’s provision function extends beyond food to feed, fibre, fuel, furniture, and more, revealing how deeply everyday life is connected to the ground beneath your feet.