Healthy Soil, Healthy Food

Healthy Soil, Healthy Food

Haylie Shipp
Haylie Shipp
It’s time for your Southeast Regional Ag News. On the Ag Information Network, I’m Haylie Shipp.

We have recently seen a scholarly movement that is linking soil health not only to plant health but also to food nutrition. It has been eye-opening research that’s just getting underway. I recently caught up with Marni Thompson of the Natural Resource Conservation Service…

“Well I think it really goes to show how we can make our food healthier for our children and for our families. Because if we have healthy soil, we have biology that’s bringing nutrients to the plants which makes the meat that eats the plants and the plants healthier. And so it really is about making healthier food for our children and our families.”

So how do you know if your soil is healthy? Marni gave me one test you can use…

“One is the slate test where you put a healthy soil and a not health soil or your own soil in the water and if you disintegrates, you know it’s not healthy. And if it stays together, you know that there’s biology in the soil because it’s holding the soil together by the glues that the biology produces, so that’s one test to see if your soil is healthy.”

Lots of ongoing research but very easy to see how consistent findings of added food nutrition would conceivably drive more demand for food grown using soil health practices.

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