Matthew Evans - Soil: The Incredible Story of What Keeps the Earth, and Us, Healthy

PRAISE FOR SOIL

A love letter to Mother Earth and entertaining must-read that goes to the heart of our survival. Charles Massy, author of Call of the Reed Warbler

Its a huge task to get a city girl like me who kills pot plants to read thousands of words about soil, but Matthew Evans has done it. Page after page of revelation, making visible the complex and vital world beneath our feet. Reading this book is going to make you dig dirt. Dr Rebecca Huntley, author of How to Talk About Climate Change

An exuberant, intelligent, mind-expanding hymn to the soil sung from the heart of a man who has experienced its miracles. Wonderful stuff. Isabella Tree, author of Wilding

This book is an urgent and passionate plea to take soil seriously, not just for farmers, gardeners and cooks, but for anyone who eats. Gabrielle Chan, author of Rusted Off

Soil is everyones business and this book pulls no punches. It lays bare our reliance upon the intricate life beneath our feet. A must-read in every school, local library, community garden, university and for your bookshelf. Costa Georgiadis, host of Gardening Australia

A fascinating read about one of the most important issues facing our planet the health of the earth, literally. Peter Gilmore, Quay

This book is for anyone who eats, and therefore benefits from the gifts that are bound up in this soil we all share. Whether youre a gardener, a farmer or just an enjoyer of food, the story of our soil is part of our humanity, and our future. Matthew Evans has done a brilliant job of inviting us into the mysteries, stories and understandings of this stuff right under our feet, largely disregarded, but which not a single human alive can do without. Kirsten Bradley, Milkwood Permaculture

Theres no human health without plant health, no plant health without soil health, and no soil health without terrific books like this one. Matthew Evans has written a robust manifesto for the largest underground movement in the world. Damon Gameau, filmmaker

A real page-turner. Matthew Evans will take your understanding of soil from being dirt to being a precious and magical resource. With lessons in history, biology, sociology, politics and war, once youre done, you will defend any little or large patch under your care with your life, understanding its utmost importance to the survival of life on earth as we know it. Alexx Stuart, author of Low Tox Life

PRAISE FOR ON EATING MEAT

Compelling, illuminating and often confronting, On Eating Meat is a brilliant blend of a gastronomes passion with forensic research into the sources of the meat we eat. Matthew Evans brings his unflinching honesty and a farmers hands-on experience to the question of how to be an ethical carnivore. Hugh Mackay, author of Australia Reimagined

Intellectually thrilling a book that challenges both vegans and carnivores in the battle for a new ethics of eating. This book will leave you surprised, engrossed and sometimes shocked whatever your food choices. Richard Glover, ABC Radio

Matthew Evans fearlessly investigates where our food comes from and the hidden impacts of our industrial food system. If you eat meat, read this book. Anton Vikstrom, Good Life Permaculture

Insightful, well-researched and highly readable, Matthew Evans new book On Eating Meat presents an honest and challenging assessment of the livestock industry and the ethical and environmental issues surrounding our consumption of meat this book equips the reader with the knowledge to get beyond the entrenched opinions of its topic area, and allows us to decide whether and what type of meat we wish to consume, and with what consequences for the future. Professor Andy Lowe, Director of Agrifood and Wine, University of Adelaide

This is the most important food book Ive read in years. Not just for meat lovers or vegans, it should be read by anyone who eats food. When I finished this book I felt informed, connected and empowered to make better decisions about how I shop, cook and eat. Alex Elliott-Howery, Cornersmith

Published in 2021 by Murdoch Books, an imprint of Allen & Unwin

Copyright Matthew Evans 2021

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. The Australian Copyright Act 1968 (the Act) allows a maximum of one chapter or 10 per cent of this book, whichever is the greater, to be photocopied by any educational institution for its educational purposes provided that the educational institution (or body that administers it) has given a remuneration notice to the Copyright Agency (Australia) under the Act.

Murdoch Books Australia

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Phone: +61 (0)2 8425 0100

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Murdoch Books UK

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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978 1 92235 141 8 Australia

ISBN 978 1 91166 819 0 UK

eISBN 978 1 76106 225 4

Cover and text design by Daniel New

Typeset by Midland Typesetters

Printed and bound in Australia by Griffin Press

Every reasonable effort has been made to trace the owners of copyright materials in this book, but in some instances this has proven impossible. The author(s) and publisher will be glad to receive information leading to more complete acknowledgements in subsequent printings of the book and in the meantime extend their apologies for any omissions.

To all the soil scientists out there, whose research never gets the attention it deserves. And to the gods of soil, whose gifts we need to cherish more.

It feels like Im walking on air. Or a trampoline. The soil under my feet springs and bounces back, cushioning my steps, dampening any sound, lifting my spirits.

Im in the Tarkine, the second-largest temperate rainforest on Earth, tucked up on Tasmanias rugged north-west coast. Im wending my way through an ancient myrtle beech forest, inhaling air that revitalises my lungs and elevates my mood. Its doing me incomparable good. Some of the trees in this forest were around when Julius Caesar ruled in Rome. Over 90 species of moss, 150 species of liverwort and innumerable lichen smother the trees and the ground. Mushrooms, the fruiting bodies of fungi, sprout forth in vibrant gold, impossible bright blue and pinot red. There are countless fungi here not recognised, yet, by science. And theyre just the ones big enough to see.

Beneath my toes lies humus, the dark, rich matter made from the decomposition of former trees and plants. There are also living arthropods, tiny little creatures with jointed limbs. If this forest is anything like ones in North America, each footfall is being supported by over 120,000 tiny legs on 16,000 little critters. But we wouldnt know for sure, because the soil in this forest, unlike that in Oregon where those numbers are known, is an unstudied wilderness.