Soil beyond food: Furniture, clothes and electronics

Soil provides much more than food alone. Feeding crops and grasslands depend on soil to support livestock production. Fibre crops, such as cotton and flax, originate in soil and become clothing and textiles. Forest soils sustain trees that provide timber for furniture, paper, construction, and even raw material for musical instruments. Biofuels – derived from maize, oilseeds, or grasses – also grow in soil, linking energy production to soil processes. 

Left: © Workplace by warkoholic, CC BY-NC 2.0, no changes were made to the original photo 

Right: © Violin by Daniel Jason, CC BY-SA 2.0, no changes were made to the original photo 

Even everyday technologies are connected to soil. Metals used in smartphones, as well as minerals in glass, and building materials all originate from weathered rock and soil layers. These examples show that soil is a multifunctional provider underpinning modern life. As you explore these connections, notice how different demands – food, materials, energy – often rely on the same soils, making soil management central to sustaining provision across systems. 

Bonus video (optional): Indonesia is one of the world’s largest exporters of tin, a metal commonly used as solder in electronic devices. Bangka Island is known not only for its high-quality pepper but also for intensive tin mining – around 90% of Indonesia’s tin is produced there. Learn in this BOKU documentary (~ 7 min) how tin mining affects local soils and what rehabilitation measures are being taken to restore the land for agricultural use.