Healthy Soil Grows Healthy Food—and Stronger Economies
Have you ever thought about the value of soil? It covers 30% of the earth’s surface. It supports all of our ecosystems, from farms and grazing land to rainforests and the vast northern taiga. It contains more carbon than the earth’s atmosphere and all its plant biomass combined. The amount of fresh water in soil that’s available to grow plants is 100 times greater than all the world’s lakes, rivers, and wetlands put together. Soil connects the lithosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere. And 95% of the food we eat is dependent on it, making soil the single most important resource for agriculture to feed the world.
Yet despite soil’s importance, we are only just beginning to understand the science of it: its astonishing biodiversity when healthy and the role it plays not just in the production of food but in maintaining clean fresh water, recharging groundwater reserves, and collecting and storing the carbon that would otherwise keep warming the planet.
What we have learned, however—not just about the conditions needed for the healthiest, most productive soil possible but also about the significant economic value to be gained in improving it (upwards of €14 billion a year in Germany alone)—makes clear just how critical it is to strive in every way to optimize and maintain its health.