Rethink Soil: A Roadmap to U.S. Soil Health
Published: November 2016
We need healthy soil. It’s a modern imperative for long-term agricultural production, which is growing as our global population continues to increase. In fact, global agricultural production must increase by 60 percent, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
Soil health extends well beyond farmland, though. Not only does soil provide an estimated 95 percent of food, but it’s crucial for clean water and can help reduce the impact of climate change.
A roadmap, prepared by an interdisciplinary team of Nature Conservancy scientists, environmental economists and agriculture experts, outlines how adopting soil health practices on all U.S. corn, soy and wheat croplands could deliver nearly $50 billion in social and environmental impacts annually.