Why we exist

The soil is calling SOS.

We started with a question about wellbeing, and the thread led all the way down to the soil beneath us.

A lone sprout above the soil line; beneath it, the letters SOS are spelled out in fingerprints

A person wonders, a thought cloud with a question mark above; a dotted path leads down into the soil to a sprouting seed

Some meals leave us light and clear-headed; others heavy and dull. Food, in other words, has a say in how alive we feel.

And soil has a big say in the food we eat.

A bowl of food sits on the soil, roots growing from its base

The iron in your kangkung, the zinc in your rice — plants don’t make these minerals. They draw them up from living soil.

Our food is quietly losing its nutrients

When soil loses its life, food follows — the FAO warns that many vegetables and fruits are not as rich in nutrients as they were 70 years ago.

It’s been reported — you’d need eight of today’s oranges for what one gave our grandparents.

One large orange equals eight smaller oranges

our grandparents’

ours today

but food is only half the story…

Soil and climate are one system: what the ground can’t hold ends up in the sky.

carbon, breathed in from the air

Plants breathe in carbon from the air, and their roots lock it into the living soil

…and locked into
living soil

That same soil also stores carbon, holds rainwater — keeping both floods and heat in check.

Where does carbon belong?

Carbon sits as a thin strip in the air, and as a thick band of fingerprints in the soil

the airthe soilup to ×3

Soil holds up to three times the carbon of all the air above us. When soil degrades, that carbon doesn’t disappear — it rises into the air, and the planet heats up.

this much soil, real size —up to 1,000 years to make

Nature needs up to a millennium to form 2–3 cm of living soil — about the top joint of your thumb, at real size on this screen.

That soil is under threat.

Around the world, living soil is disappearing: when it loses its life, it turns to sand. The UN calls the end of that road desertification, and estimates that up to 40% of the world's land is already degraded.

That’s the equivalent of four football fields lost every second.

A slope of living soil with plants and roots slides down into bare sand; a magnifying glass brings faint soil life into focus below

Meanwhile, the Malaysian soil picture is hard to see. Most of us don’t know enough about the situation here to know what to act on, or how to respond and support.

Sounds of Soil exists to amplify the cries of the soil calling for SOS.

We’re building digital tools and pathways that empower local farmers, and make living soil-friendly so easy, anyone can do it.

The soil's voice rises from an underground node up through a tree and is amplified above it; people listen, look closely and tend seedlings, their roots joined by one network

Our vision is

a sustainable agrifood system that runs on living soil — the source of our own lives.

A farmer in a conical hat kneels beside a family; seedlings and a flower grow from the soil, with seeds scattered below

Where communities are connected to the local farms that feed them, and know the hands behind every meal.

One where local farmers are supported to regenerate the land they grow on, season after season.

A farmer in a conical hat shakes hands with a supporter under a sun with a sprout inside; beside them, a compost heap, mulch and seedlings rooted in the soil

And where healthy soil is counted as part of every harvest, not just what we take from it.

A balance scale weighs a harvest of greens and fruit against a mound of living soil with a seedling

So… why do “we” exist? Because mother nature allowed us to.

& why Sounds of Soil exists…all so that we,the people we love, andthe generations to comecan eat well and live well,in the embrace of mother earthWe’re glad you’re here.

Two people stand side by side on the soil, a small sprout between them

With love, from the ground up,

Andrew

& Wan Hui

Co-founders of Sounds of Soil

A person with a sprout on their head, roots growing from their feet into the soil

“When we eat, we take in a part of the Earth; how we treat the soil is how we treat our own bodies.”

— Sadhguru

Founder of Save Soil, a global movement for living soil accredited with the UNCCD

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