Soil Quality/Soil Health: A 25-Year Progress Evaluation.

Plato’s proclamation on the fragility of our soil resources, reprinted by Dr. Daniel Hillel in his 1991 book entitled Out of the earth: Civilization and the life of the soil, coupled with the 2015 conclusion by Karlen and Rice that “soil degradation remains a global problem caused by many diverse factors,” can only cause one to stop and ask if we are really making any progress toward improving the health of our global soil resources. Our objectives for this presentation are to: (1) clarify that the modern concept of soil health did not spring up overnight, (2) briefly review what we consider to be milestones that have been achieved during the past 25 years, (3) identify some of the challenges and barriers that have been encountered and those that remain, and (4) suggest some potential pathways for achieving the cultural change needed to sustain soil for current and future generations.  We readily acknowledge that soil quality/health endeavors throughout the 1990s were built on foundations laid by many excellent scientists, engineers, and scholars.  With regard to what has been achieved during the past two and one-half decades, we suggest that perhaps former President John F. Kennedy would have summarized it as requesting that humankind no longer ask what the soil can do for you, but rather what you can do to protect it! The primary driver for our passion and commitment to soil health is how our friend, mentor, and former colleague Dr. Bill Larson often defined soil resources when he would state that soil was “the thin layer covering the planet that stands between us and starvation.” Our concluding question is whether or not you are doing everything you can to ensure our fragile soil resources are being sustained for an infinite number of generations to come?