Do We Treat Our Soil Like Dirt?
That question headlining a 1984
National Geographic
article on soils remains as relevant today as it was more than 30 years ago.We lavish attention on our food, we want to know where it came from, who grew it, and whether it is “conventional” or “organic.” But we give hardly a passing thought to the ground our food grew in.
Soil could use some more attention and respect. After all, soil is the thin skin of our earth where we plant and grow the vital grain crops like wheat, rice, and corn that feed more than seven billion of us.
And while the future rests on the soil beneath our feet
National Geographic
also put it in a 2008 article on soils, history is littered with the remains of civilizations that ignored, exploited, and degraded the soil beneath their feet.One third of the world’s soil already has been damaged by water and wind erosion, deforestation, compaction, nutrient depletion, and pollution. By our own actions, we are losing soil faster than nature can create it will be only a quarter of what it was
In the late 1930s, soil scientist W.C. Lowdermilk traveled across Europe, North Africa, and the Near East to investigate why past civilizations failed, and persevered, by looking at the effect of agricultural practices over the past 7,000 years
Lowdermilk sought insights that could help avoid a repeat of the Dust Bowl “Great Plow-Up” Huge dust storms Washington, D.C. Oklahoma, Kansas, and nearby states
On Lowdermilk’s 18-month journey of toppled empires and vanished civilizations, he found that soil losses from wind and water erosion, soil salination from irrigation, deforestation, overgrazing, and conflicts between crop farmers and herdsmen all had contributed to failure of society. He also found that careful stewardship of soil with land terracing, crop rotation, tree planting and other methods that keep soil covered has allowed societies to flourish for centuries.
A 2015 study in
Science
called“Soil and Human Security in the 21st Century”
reports that a recent rise in research on soils and soil health has been encouraging, but that soil conservation—preserving soil carbon, cutting erosion, and improving soil nutrients—must increase significantly, and soon, to protect the remaining soils we rely on.“These are challenging goals that will be difficult to achieve,” the study says, “much like the approaches required to contend with climate change.”
Unless we ramp up our efforts to conserve remaining soils, our own future is at risk, just like the vanished civilizations Lowdermilk studied more than 75 years ago. In decades ahead the pressure on the world’s soils to to grow even more food will only rise as population likely rises past nine billion by 2050
While we observe World Food Day
Education campaigns about soils are increasing. The U.N. has declared 2015 the International Year of Soils World Soils Day
It’s about time. Here’s to soil.
Dennis Dimick grew up on a farm in Oregon and studied agriculture in college. He serves as National Geographic’s Executive Editor for the Environment. You can follow him on
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