In this blog, Wendy Pattinson reflects on the vital role of soil in our connection to the Earth and the importance of caring for it as an act of love and responsibility.
The Creation stories in Genesis leave out an important event; the Creation of soil. It is soil that enables plants to grow and thrive on land, so that we can forage and grow the food crops we need to live.
Earth is our mother, who has raised and continues to care for us. Like ourselves, Earth is covered with a living, breathing skin. The soil that covers land is an amazing system of interdependent roots, fungi, bacteria, worms, springtails and more. Fungi are like blood vessels, with capillaries clustered around the tips of roots. Forming an extensive web, they bring nutrients and carry messages between plants. Some bacteria help to fix nitrogen, while other bacteria and fungi are responsible for breaking down dead material, recycling its nutrients. They secrete the ‘glue’ that maintains soil structure, so that air and water can permeate. The whole soil ecosystem is fuelled by sunshine falling on the leaves of plants to make sugars and lipids that are carried down to their roots and shared with other organisms.
When we plough land to grow crops, this skin is torn, its parts thrown into disarray. Fungal connections are severed so that living components die and nutrients bleed away. Repeated cultivation and the application of fertilisers and biocides stop the soil from healing itself.
Our Earth mother loves and feeds us willingly and at cost to herself and, like our human mothers, we need to love and care for the Earth. But like a mother whose wounded body is hidden by clothing from her children, the degraded habitats of wounded Earth are often hidden by physical and transactional distance, or by assumptions deeply embedded in our cultural myths.
If we receive our food as a gift from Mother Earth we will take only what we need and receive it with gratitude. We’ll take those foods that cost our Mother the most only occasionally so that she won’t be impoverished. And we’ll do what we can to care for our dear old Mother, being especially careful to heal and protect her skin.
As we reflect on the deep connection between the Earth, our food and our communities, it’s important to consider how we can act with intention and care toward the planet and one another. This is the heart of our upcoming course, Food, Faith and Witness, which begins on Thursday 29 May 2025. In this course, we will explore how food not only nourishes us physically but also connects us to our communities and the environment in profound and meaningful ways. Together, we will ask critical questions about how we relate to food in a time of climate crisis, examining the ethical and spiritual dimensions of our choices, and discovering how we can create collective responses that support sustainability and justice.
