As of 1 June, the special professorship in Pedometrics and Digital Soil Mapping at Wageningen University was renewed for five more years. The position is funded by ISRIC and positioned within the university's Soil Geography and Landscape Group.

Eating soil is an old and established culturally important practice in many places around the world. In many countries, the action of eating earth and soil-like substances (geophagy) is a means of spiritual cleansing, amongst other benefits. There are even restaurants that serve soil as food. Will soil consumption become more widely accepted or even develop into a ‘superfood’ practice? What would be the implications of this?

On May 20, 2022, the 9th edition of ISRIC’s Spring School was completed, offering a five-day course on Hands-on Digital Soil Mapping. The online course attracted 44 participants from 21 countries.

In a recent issue of the journal Agriculture for Development, ISRIC – World Soil Information guest researcher David G. Rossiter published the article “Soil mapping today: computer-generated predictive soil maps – their role in soil survey and land evaluation.”

On 19 May, PhD candidate Yingxia Liu successfully defended her thesis about statistical analysis and modelling of crop yield and nitrogen use efficiency in China. Yingxia’s research was co-supported by WUR, ISRIC and CAAS.

Discover the beauty and diversity of soil, the living skin of the Earth, in the World Soil Museum. Hosted by ISRIC – World Soil Information, the museum brings the importance of soil to life.

ISRIC – World Soil Information was a founding member of the WOCAT Network in 1992 and recently we signed a renewal agreement to continue our support in the network’s 30th anniversary year.

SoilGrids is ISRIC – World Soil Information’s flagship system for global digital soil mapping. Every year, thousands of people access these open-access maps and download them for their own use and we want to know: how is SoilGrids working for you?

In February and March 2022, the World Soil Museum hosted a four-part online series called “Peatland Exchanges.” The series was initiated by the museum’s artist-in-residence Kate Foster in partnership with Wageningen University & Research’s Home Turf Project and WetFutures.

From 15 to 22 February 2022, ISRIC facilitated a digital soil mapping workshop for seven scientists from the geological surveys of Norway, Sweden and Finland. The workshop focused on mapping the occurrence of acid sulfate soils in these countries and is part of the “HazArctic – Geo-Bio Hazards in the Arctic Region” project.