Artwork

The installation aims to make people reflect on the relationship between soil and food production – in the main, an issue not at the forefront of an ever increasing urban population, whose sole contact with food is via supermarkets.

The centrepiece of the installation is a 5m x 5m wall panel, divided into areas that represent the main 'natural' constraints to the cultivation of arable crops. The size of each area on the panel is proportional to its extent on Earth (e.g. deserts occupy 18% of the terrestrial land mass, and 18% of the panel).  Each area is filled with a photograph to represent the landscape.

In addition, the physical size of the panel represents the amount of fertile soil lost every second in Europe and about 1/4 of the amount of fertile soil per person on the planet. This means 252 ha/day or 1,000 km2 per year.

While the demands for food, animal feed and recently, biofuels, are all increasing, the amount of arable land (hectares) per person is falling. From around 0.52 ha per person in 1950 to 0.20 ha per person in 2010, or about 100 times the area of the 5m x 5m panel in this installation.

This puts increasing pressure on existing areas to produce crops and to convert natural/semi-natural habitats to agriculture. When soils fail so do societies. Just look at the consequences of events such as the Irish potato famine, the dustbowl of the mid-west in the 1930s or more recently, the Sahelian famine of the 1980s. In fact, the poor quality of land around much of the Mediterranean is the consequence of poor soil management in Roman times.

Additional details

Installation by Arwyn Jones.