Soil Security: Rationale.

Soil security is an all-encompassing and inclusive concept of soil essentially motivated by sustainable development. It is concerned with the maintenance and improvement of the global soil resource to produce food, fiber and fresh water, contribute to energy and climate sustainability, and to maintain the biodiversity and the overall protection of the ecosystem and to promote human health. Security is used for soil in the same sense that it is used widely for food, water and energy. It is argued that soil has an integral part to play in the global environmental sustainability challenges of food security, water security, energy sustainability, climate stability, biodiversity, and human health delivery. Consequently and moreover, soil has the same existential status for humanity and earth’s living systems as these other widely-known global issues and should be recognized, highlighted and infused similarly.