Sustainable Land Use (Greening) from European Commission
Around half of the European Union’s area is farmed land. Farmers act as managers of the countryside; they shape landscapes and through their work, farmers provide public goods beneficial to all. Farming activities are affected by climatic events, the state of the environment, biodiversity and water quality.
However, the sustainable land use is decreasing due to the continual plowing of fields, combined with heavy use of fertilizer. That has degraded soils across the world with erosion occurring at a pace of up to 100 times greater than the rate of soil formation. It takes around 500 years for just 2.5cm of topsoil to be created amid unimpeded ecological changes.
Happy Micro on Sustainable Land Use
As we watched how nature (water and soil) has improved with Happy Micro in the past decades, we knew Happy Micro could play a big role for the sustainable land use here.
This was soil outside of our temporary office in Laos. The owner bet on that the soil there will not grow any agricultural products. In fact, if we made it happen, he would give us his office. We took on this challenge with cucumber seeds.
Comparison with Happy Micro
After X months, the result was clear. (Any fertilizer?) However, the owner did not give us his office and we were still paying the rent… Well, at least he gave us a chance to gain more sustainable land use with happy microorganisms in the soil. 🙂
Sustainable Land Use in Laos
Another challenge we took in Laos was 1500 hectare, uninhabitable land. The farmer wanted to turn it into pasture that is sustainable land used for grazing for 8,000 cattle. As you can see from the photo, that was not an ideal soil to grow crops by any means.
We stirred and overturned the soil with Happy Micro and within the same year, an enormous corn field (about 2 meter high) was there. Four years later, it was completely greened with the soil full of happy microorganisms supported by Happy Micro.
Something worth mentioning is about the sustainable land use inside that 1,500 hectare farm. A poor livestock grazing usually causes the contamination of (ground) water because of too much excrement flowing into the ground. Inevitably that is absorbed/drunk by plants and animals which creates a vicious cycle for the environment.
Long Lasting Effect for Sustainable Land Use
Interestingly, the excrement of cattle there does not smell (Also Read: Organic Farming in Japan) so it’s easy for farmers to reuse them as the natural fertilizer.
When it rains, all excess fertilizer and “nutrition” with “happy microorganisms” flow into the groundwater that influence microorganisms living there to purify the water. Finally, that water will be consumed by plants and animals. We only used Happy Micro once and its ability to make sustainable land continues for years so far.
Takeaways
We fully understand that any product that if you can only sell once, is not a good business like Happy Micro. However, what we want to see is to expand more sustainable land use for all living things including microorganisms. The least we want to do is to make profit by harming the soil, water, air, animals and people.
Even though sustainable land use has been expanding globally, they can only grow plants that are more resilient in harsh environments. Of course, not every piece of land needs to be used for farming but if there is such a request, we will give it a try. Just like we did for the owner who thought it was impossible to turn it into a sustainable land.