To tackle climate change, we need to fight dirty

The fight against climate change is a battle for our survival. We need to fight dirty with one of the most powerful weapons we have: soil.

Not only does healthy soil feed us and sustain wildlife, it stores billions of tonnes of carbon, helping to tackle climate change. 

The Soil Association is working hard to protect our soil from being degraded and destroyed. But as a charity we need your support. 

Join us as a member, and together we can save our soil and fight climate change. 

• Around 40% of the world's farmland is now degraded, mainly due to intensive farming

  We need the soil to live and feed ourselves. But not only does soil sustain us, it captures carbon, provides a home for wildlife, and helps defend us against flooding and drought.

  With your support, we can protect the soil that helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

• Soil stores more carbon than all living plants, forests and animals

  Without healthy soil, we can't tackle the climate crisis. Healthy soil fights the effects of carbon change, storing three times the amount of carbon in the atmosphere, and four times the amount in all living plants and animals.

  Yet globally every minute, we lose the equivalent of 30 football pitches of soil. What's more, it can take over 500 years for just one inch of topsoil to form.

• Over 70% of the UK is farmland

  We're working with farmers to explore nature-friendly methods that will protect and enhance the soil.

  One solution is to combine trees with crops and livestock to produce healthier soil. More trees and better quality soil will capture more carbon and provide much-needed habitats for wildlife.

• By supporting nature-friendly farming, we can save our soil and the climate

  For more than 75 years, we've been committed to building natural solutions to the problems we face. Our goals are to save wildlife, protect nature and fight climate change so we can leave a better world for future generations.

  Your support today will help us focus on restoring our life-giving soil and reducing harmful carbon emissions.

We can only fight dirty to protect our precious soil with your support. Become a member of the Soil Association from £5 a month, and you'll:

• Join us in the fight against climate change
• Become a part of a community of thousands of people who champion a world that works with nature, not against it
• Receive a monthly newsletter updating you on how your support is helping, and the change you've made happen
• Receive our members’ magazine three times a year

About the Soil Association

Any questions?

If you have any questions about our work, or being a member of the Soil Association, please email us at memb@soilassociation.org or call 0300 330 0022. 

You can read our membership terms and conditions below. 

Join by post

If your Direct Debit account requires more than one signature, you can join by completing a paper form and sending it to us. Click here to download a paper join form.

• Membership terms and conditions

  Soil Association Charity Membership Terms and Conditions

  The following are the membership terms and conditions of the Soil Association Charity (the “Charity”) and you should read them carefully as they set out your rights and obligations as a member of the Charity. These terms and conditions are based on our Articles of Association.

   

  The Soil Association is a registered charity: number no 206862 in England and Wales; number SC039168 in Scotland.

  Eligibility

  Membership of the Charity is offered to the public and to licensees of Soil Association Certification Limited.

  Public membership

  These terms and conditions apply to the following current public Charity memberships: Individual, Joint, Soil Friend, Soil Circle and Producer.

  The terms and conditions also apply to holders of the following public Charity memberships that are no longer actively offered by the Charity: Family, Concessionary, Life and Honorary.

  All these public memberships have Company Law membership rights.

  Licensee membership

  Licensees can be either full members of the Charity with Company Law membership rights, Associate members without Company Law membership rights or decide to have no relationship with the Charity.

  For the avoidance of doubt there is no requirement for a licensee of Soil Association Certification Limited to have any kind of membership relationship with the Charity. Licensees who are members of the Charity may terminate their Charity membership at any time and this will have no impact on their relationship with Soil Association Certification Limited.

  These terms and conditions apply to the following current licensees of Soil Association Certification Limited: Organic food producers, Organic food processers, Health & Beauty and Textiles, providing they were licensed prior to 5th November 2015 and unless they have opted out of full Charity membership.

  These terms and conditions apply to the following current licensees of Soil Association Certification Limited: Organic food producers, Organic food processers, Health & Beauty and Textiles, who were licensed from 5th November 2015 and who have opted in to full Charity membership.

  The Charity will grant the status of Associate member to eligible licensees who either opt-out of or choose not to take up full Charity membership. Associate membership of the Charity does not convey Company Law membership rights or obligations. With the exception of the section entitled “Charity membership rights and obligations”, these terms and conditions also apply to Associate Members.

  Eligible licensees and any other customers of Soil Association Certification Limited offered Associate membership by the Charity, are free to opt out of or may choose not to take up such Associate membership.

  Your details

  You are responsible for informing the Charity of changes to your personal details. If you are provided with individual passwords for access to our on-line services these must not be shared with anyone else.

  All members agree that postal addresses, email addresses, telephone numbers and other personal details provided to the Charity may be used for administrative purposes and to fulfil your Charity membership. As part of your membership the Charity may also send you information about our work and our fundraising where we feel this would be of interest to you. We may contact you by post, telephone and/or email where you have provided these to us.

  You can of course opt-out of communications from us at any time, save that we are legally required to communicate with members who hold Company Law rights and obligations on certain matters governed by Company Law for as long as you remain such a member of the Charity. Any such member joining the Charity after 10th August 2015 will be provided with Company Law information by means of our website unless the member contacts us to request that such information is sent to them directly.

  The Charity takes great care of your personal information. If you would like to see full details of how we process your data, or to change how we communicate with you please see our Privacy Policy.

  Charity membership rights and obligations

  The Charity is incorporated as a company limited by guarantee: company registration number 00409726. As a member of the Charity you have certain rights and obligations laid down in Company Law and our Articles of Association.

  As a Charity member your rights include, the right to:

  - Attend the Annual General Meeting of the Charity

  - Receive the Annual Report and Accounts of the Charity

• Research and references

  “UK soils currently store about 10 billion tonnes of carbon. This is roughly equal to 80 years of annual UK greenhouse gas emissions.”

  Environmental Agency, Summary of the State of the Environment: Soil. Updated 26 January 2023

  “Around 40% of the world's farmland is now degraded, mainly due to intensive farming”

  United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, Global Land Outlook 2 (GLO2) report, 27 April 2022

  “Soil stores more carbon than the atmosphere, and all of the world’s plants and forests combined”

  Ontl, T. A. & Schulte, L. A. (2012) ‘Soil Carbon Storage’ Nature Education Knowledge 3(10):35

  “70% of the UK is farmland”

  National Statistics, Agricultural land Use in United Kingdom at 1 June 2022, Published 15 December 2022

  “Up to 10 billion microorganisms can be found in just a quarter of a teaspoon of soil”

  Torsvik and Øvreås 2012, Microbial diversity and function in soil: from genes to ecosystems, Current Opinion in Microbiology, 5:240–245. DOI: 10.1016/s1369-5274(02)00324-7

  “95% of the food that we eat comes from soil”

  UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (2015), Healthy soils are the basis for healthy food production

  “Globally we lose the equivalent of 30 football pitches of soil every minute to degradation”

  Lori et al. (2017) Organic farming enhances soil microbial abundance and activity. A meta-analysis and metaregression. PLoS ONE 12(7):e0180442

  “A single hectare of soil has the potential to store and filter enough water for 1000 people for 1 year”

  Environmental Audit Committee – Inquiry into Soil Health (2016) Written Submission from the Committee on Climate Change – 14th January 2016

  “More than half of all Earth’s species live in the soil”

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2023