Local Environmental Entrepreneur Meets HRH and Tells Him ‘a Thing or Two About Soil.’

At the London celebrations of the Soil Association’s 70th birthday held at the Royal Horticultural Halls on the 22nd June, two important guests were in attendance; the association’s patron HRH Prince Charles and Hampshire’s own environmental entrepreneur, Simon Parfey of Soil Bio Lab.

The Soil Association was founded in 1946 by farmers, scientists, doctors and nutritionists to promote the connection between the health of the soil, goods, animals, people and environment. A cause so integral to our collective health that it is well worth celebrating - by royalty and environmental entrepreneurs alike.

On recalling his meeting with HRH, Mr Parfey said, ‘Prince Charles is, and has been for some time, an incredibly important and influential figure in organic farming so it was an honour to meet him. It also felt surprisingly natural. He was easy to talk to and projected an aura of calm on what was a very busy day. Once we started to talk, the background noise faded away and I invited him to look through the microscope and observe what I look at everyday - microbial communities. The diversity and strength of these communities are essential to soil health, crop health and - ultimately - human health.’

According to Mr Parfey, soil life has been ignored by the vast majority of growers across the globe for too long. Now, as it becomes exhausted, crop, plant and grass production is beginning to struggle. In his opinion it is critical that growers urgently adopt a complete approach to soil management before it’s too late.

When asked if he felt HRH seemed to have a handle on the pressing issues, Mr Parfey replied, ‘he seemed to have a very thorough understanding … although his eyes did begin to glaze over when I moved on to talk about bacteria and fungi at length. Still, I like to think I taught him a thing or two about soil!’

You can find out more precision testing for soil and growing media via soilhub.international or soilbiolab.co.uk.

Image source: Soil Association