4-14 IAN Soil Importance

 Soil Science: Healing Our Planet's Ills from the Ground Up…I’m DS

We've been asked to save the whales, save energy, even save our waste; but now a group of scientists are sounding the alarm that it's time to save our soil.   Save dirt you ask?  Hi, I'm David Sparks, and it seems that a bunch of PhDs have finally discovered something us ag folks have known for centuries - that being dirt poor can be downright dangerous. Back in a minute.

Having been a college professor in science for many years, I’m always interested in agricultural science. Well, this just in from the publication Science Daily. Under our feet and ubiquitous, lowly soil can be easily overlooked when it comes to addressing climate change and population growth. But a team of scientists say soil is an essential piece of the biosphere and more attention should be paid to protecting it. Strategies for doing so include refocusing and boosting research, and communicating its importance to the public.

While people don't think much about soil, it quietly and continuously services life on Earth. Soil provides the basis for food and fiber production; it supports a diversity of plant, animal, and microbial life; it regulates nutrient cycles and gas exchange with the atmosphere; it cultures our inner feelings for home, for place, for renewal of spirit.

However, changes occurring to our planet are affecting the services provided by soil. Whether these changes are natural or stimulated by the activities of an ever-increasing population, there is an urgent need to rejuvenate the essential services provided by soil. After all, soil depletion has hastened the collapse of at least one society, the Greeks, and contributed to economic hardship as recently as the last century in the Great Plains of the United States.