You must log in or # to comment.
This is outdated, the soil quality has gone down in many places since 2018. So if you think this looks bad, reality is worse.
Ukraine truly is the breadbasket of Europe.
finland having some of the worst soil where it’s just untouched nature? according to other sources finland has some of the best soil in europe. i aint buying this.
This soil quality scale measures suitability for growing crops rather than pollution. Pollution impacts that negatively, of course, but there are plenty of natural reasons why an area might be bad for agriculture.
The north of Scotland is also red on this map, and it’s definitely not because of human pollution. It’s sparsely populated and generally one of the most unspoilt areas of the UK. The soil just happens to be pretty bad for crops. That’s part of the reason it was sparsely populated in the first place. I expect Finland could be the same.
Finnish soil is acidic and clay based. Most of the grain grown goes straight to animal feed since it’s too low quality for baking.
Isn’t this a map of alluvial soil and population density?
Relevant XKCD
This post is probably a rare instance of the reverse of that comic, right? People go where there’s good soil, rather than the other way around
Yeah it’s a population density map but the scale is flipped, and it’s also kinda a topological map
I forgot that one, thanks
source is not the source
Based on a soil assessment set given by the Muencheberg Soil Quality Rating (SQR) system potentially “marginal” sites have been investigated. The SQR system allows for clearly distinguishing between soils of higher and lower quality.
Thank you,this is interesting but dismaying. Need to look up the criteria behind it
The Netherlands being the top agricultural exporter (by value) in Europe on hard mode.
So, what do we do with the greenest areas? Cover them with splodges of grey, of course…
