The United Nations has declared December 5 as World Soil Day. Noting that “soils constitute the foundation for agricultural development, essential ecosystem functions and food security and hence are key to sustaining life on Earth,” the United Nations General Assembly created World Soil Day in 2014 and additionally declared 2015 as International Year of Soils.
Each World Soil Day features a theme highlighting a particular aspect of soil health. For 2022, the theme is “Soils, Where Food Begins.” According to the United Nations,
King Adulyadej was an advocate of using vetiver grass (Chrysopogon zizanioides) to control soil erosion. Vetiver grass is a perennial with long vertical roots that is exceptionally useful for stabilizing soils on sloping hills. Starting in 1991, the king led experiments and demonstrations to develop the use of vetiver as a “miracle grass.” So promising was this work that The International Erosion Control Association awarded the king its International Merit Award in 1993. Later that year, the World Bankpresented him with a bronze sculpture of a vetiver plant “for technical and development accomplishment in the promotion of the vetiver technology internationally.”
Read MoreApril is Keep America Beautiful Month
Back in 1971, The Keep America Beautiful organization teamed up with the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts to create Keep American Beautiful Day. It was expanded in 1982 to a week, and then to the entire month of April in 1984. As spring takes hold of the weather and the landscape awaken with the greening of trees and grasses, the blooming of wildflowers and the melodies of nesting songbirds, we, too, ought to take special notice of our beautiful environment—and do something to, as they say, keep it beautiful.
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