Exploring Linkages Between Soil Health and Human Health
English
By (author): and Medicine Board on Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee on Exploring Linkages Between Soil Health and Human Health Division on Earth and Life Studies Engineering Food and Nutrition Board Health and Medicine Division National Academies of Sciences
The United States is an important food producer globally, in part because of its abundance of agriculturally productive soils. However, management practices that maximize yields have caused losses in soil organic matter, poor soil structure and water-holding capacity, and increased salinity on millions of acres of land - and have adversely affected the microbial communities that are the drivers of many soil processes. At the same time, recent scientific advances have spurred interest in how microbial communities can support soil health, food quality, and human health.
It is in this context that the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture asked the National Academies to explore the linkages between soil health and human health. The report finds that to improve soil health, federal agencies need to promote the importance of soil health, support translational research, and develop a coordinated national approach to monitor soil health over time and space. Given the potential that microbiomes have in modulating soil, plant, and human health, there is also a pressing need to determine which microbial features, if any, contribute to quantifying or fortifying health in both human and soil systems and to understand the direct and indirect roles of soil, alongside other environmental factors, in influencing human microbial colonization and subsequent health outcomes. Such investigation involves delving into the relatively sparse or disconnected research regarding the microbiome continuum that links soil and human systems.
Table of Contents- Front Matter
- Summary
- 1 Introduction
- 2 The Connectivity of Health
- 3 The Importance of Soil Health to Nature's Contributions to People
- 4 Impacts of Agricultural Management Practices on Soil Health
- 5 Linkages Between Agricultural Management Practices and Food Composition and Safety
- 6 Interactions of Soil Chemical Contaminants, Soil Health, and Human Health
- 7 Microbiomes and the SoilHuman Health Continuum
- 8 Going Forward
- Appendix A: Committee Member Biographical Sketches
- Appendix B: Public Meeting Agendas
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