Dear Mr President,
First of all, we congratulate you for having taken the initiative to organize a high-level conference starting today in Tallin on “Soil for sustainable food production and ecosystem services” as part of your Presidency.
Secondly, we welcome the lines on conference homepage1 mentioning that: Plants need soil to grow and fertile soils are the basis for agricultural production and with that, they are also the foundation for the nutrition of mankind. Soils are also one of the biggest biodiversity reservoirs with approximately a third of the world’s flora and fauna living there! The microorganisms living in soils are, for example, necessary in the production of medications – almost all antibiotics come from soils. We furthermore welcome that, speaking about ‘sustainable use of agricultural soils’, you also mention the importance of ‘regulations on crop rotation and the use of glyphosate, the requirement to keep the land under a green cover during winter, using suitable agro-techniques to hinder erosion, keeping peatlands and areas with eroded soils as grasslands, etc.’.