Enhancing Soils' Biodiversity Can Improve Human Health

Tomorrow is World Soil Health Day — a day to celebrate the importance of soil as one of our most critical natural resources. Those of us in agriculture realize this first hand. Colorado State University’s School of Global Environmental Sustainability Director Dr. Diana Wall makes the case to integrate soil biodiversity research into human health studies as the role of living organisms in the soils and how they are managed impacts the benefits for human health. She says most ag producers are aware of good soil practices.
Wall: “I think in many ways we are already doing it. It is old practices we’re bringing back or new information that we are adding to old practices. Using cover crops, using integrated soil fertility management where we apply agrochemicals and fertilizer at the amount, the right time, and the right place — whether it is an arid ecosystem or particular forest ecosystem. We’re just getting more savvy about that. Then there are the crop breaks, what helps with using a mixture of organic and regular chemical fertilizer — there are a lot of things that growers already are aware of out there. It is just taking the step to say, ‘Wow, when we do this we are reducing some of the pathogens in the soil and increasing the beneficial organisms in the food web.’”