Teenager completes cycle for soil awareness
A teenager from Skye who has completed a 900-mile cycle across the UK and Ireland to raise awareness of the soil crisis hopes the trip will show the Government "this is so important."
Oscar Smith, 17, rode alongside 10 core riders who cycled at least 150 miles each as part of the Cycle for Soil campaign by Save Soil, a global ecological movement aiming to educate the public about the role that soil plays in sustainability and push for meaningful policy change.
Mr Smith, the only person to complete the full two-week journey through Edinburgh, Belfast, Dublin, Birmingham, and Cardiff, was welcomed by a group gathered in Parliament Square, London, yesterday - World Soil Day - for the movement's protest.
"Eighty seven per cent of life on earth comes from the thin layer of 15 inches of topsoil," Mr Smith said.
"In a simple fact, if we had no soil, we can't have any life.
"I hope that the Government will see that myself, a 17-year-old kid, is cycling 900 miles for the soil because this is so important."
Mr Smith, who works in a pub, came across a Youtube video about the soil crisis in the UK and decided to start volunteering for Save Soil.
He cycled 50-60 miles a day, 7 days a week and with other riders, stopped at local farms, universities, and organisations that are championing soil health.
Dr Simon Jeffrey, a soil microbial ecologist at Harper Adams University, Shropshire, told Mr Smith: "It's predicted that by 2050, if nothing else changes, our average yields globally will be about 10 per cent lower than they are at the moment.”