Tracey Jackson, Associate Director & Chartered Surveyor for H&H Land & Estates chats to Felicity Elder, from Leeds University.  Felicity is undertaking research on behalf of SPADE (Soil Pollution Assessment Delivery) into the environmental impacts of organic soil amendments.  She will explain why they are undertaking the research and how farmers can become involved by supplying soil samples from their fields.

Organic soil amendments offer a means of meeting crop nutrient demands in a sustainable way. However, the practice is not fully understood in terms of environmental impacts; the SPADE project is designed to better understand the potential benefits and drawbacks of using organic soil amendments such as Slurry, Manure, Wastewater-derived products (sludge or liquid fertiliser), Compost and Urea

These amendments can contain a wide variety of chemical pollutants including human and veterinary medicines, personal care products, pesticides and industrial chemicals which can affect living organisms, and their fate and persistence is poorly understood within the soil environment.