1.2 — Provision
Tracing everyday products back to soil
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Soil beyond food: furniture, clothes and electronics
Soil provides much more than food alone. Feeding crops and grasslands depend on soil to support livestock production. Fibre crops, such as cotton and flax, originate in soil and become clothing and textiles. Forest soils sustain trees that provide timber for furniture, paper, construction, and even raw material for musical instruments. Biofuels - derived from maize, oilseeds, or grasses - also grow in soil, linking energy production to soil processes.
© Workplace by warkoholic, CC BY-NC 2.0, no changes were made to the original photo
© Violin by Daniel Jason, CC BY-SA 2.0, no changes were made to the original photo
Even everyday technologies are connected to soil and the Earth’s near-surface layers. Metals used in smartphones are extracted through mining of geological materials beneath soils, while minerals for glass, bricks, and other construction materials originate from weathered rock and soil-related deposits. These examples show that soil and land systems underpin many aspects of modern life far beyond agriculture alone.
At the same time, the same limited land areas are expected to fulfil many functions simultaneously: producing food, animal feed, fibers, biofuels, and raw materials, while also supporting biodiversity, storing carbon, regulating water, and providing space for settlements and infrastructure. Soil management therefore plays a central role in balancing these competing demands and sustaining human societies in the long term.
Bonus video (optional): Many materials used in electronic devices originate from geological resources that are accessed through mining and excavation of soil and rock layers. One example is tin; a metal commonly used as solder in electronics. Indonesia is one of the world’s largest exporters of tin, and around 90% of the country’s tin is produced on Bangka Island - a region also known for its high-quality pepper production.
Learn in this BOKU documentary (~7 min) how tin mining affects local soils and what rehabilitation measures are being taken to restore the land for agricultural use.