Why We Desperately Need Healthy Soil

The government’s MAHA Commission has prioritized improving soil quality to enhance Americans’ nutrition and health outcomes.

Yet it may not be immediately apparent how essential soils are to achieving the goals of the MAHA Commission and the larger MAHA movement. As a longtime farmer, I would like to explain some fundamentals about microbial activity below ground and why it urgently requires our attention.

Most people don’t think much about soil, and often confuse it with dirt. Healthy agricultural soils are far more than mere substrates or inert ingredients – they team with microbial life that feeds nutrients to plants, which in turn influence nutrition in crops and livestock. Scientific studies continue to uncover the connections between healthy soils and a healthy human gut microbiome, as well as the significance of this microbial community for human health.

Microbiology is increasingly revealing that the animal gut and the soil microbiome have evolved together. Being disconnected from the soil microbiome has led to people's poor health. The push to study and understand the “final frontier” of thriving topsoil holds the promise of revisiting past technological hubris and using healthy soils to improve human longevity and disease resistance.

Conservationist Aldo Leopold warned Americans of this modern plight 75 years ago, writing: “We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.”

Studies have shown that increased urbanization compromises the microbiomes of both soils and humans. Sickened soils sicken people. Healthy soils also impact rates of farmland erosion, water retention, crop productivity and nutritional value, and the amount of chemical runoff into drinking water. As farmer and food rights activist Joel Salatin explained for this article: “Soil is the sponge to accept and hold water, the womb for roots, the foundation for all living things. It is the ultimate repository of a nation’s wealth and health, eclipsing banks, energy, and artificial intelligence.” Joel has not overstated the case.

In tandem with growing evidence of the primacy of topsoils for plant and human health, there has been an accumulation of reliable proof that, when applied to soil,pesticides, herbicides, and other unnatural chemical applications and their residues are sickening America’s prime soils. Pesticides harm the soil microbiome in numerous ways, including altering soil pH, residual build-up, binding with soil nutrients or organic matter to reduce nutrient availability, killing beneficial bacteria and fungi, and disrupting microbial functions, which can cause a slowing of organic matter breakdown and nutrient release.

Federal regulators must urgently embrace thorough, unbiased studies of the impacts of pesticides, herbicides (including glyphosate), and fungicides to understand better how they influence soil microbes. Existing federal and state programs are available to support and incentivize farmers to employ soil-nurturing practices and reduce chemical applications that harm or disrupt microbial balance. A thorough cross-agency regulatory review is imperative to identify the primary chemical threats to human health from industrial agriculture, enabling stricter monitoring and elimination.

The MAHA movement is focused and committed to improving human understanding of soil science and healing life-giving soils damaged by decades of chemical abuse. MAHA Action President Tony Lyons is leading the charge. An important issue, a central goal of the MAHA report is to improve soil health” Lyons told me. “This means reducing pesticide use…. We need to have a major, high-level conversation with farmers around reforming agriculture in a way that helps farmers and protects consumers. That is happening. It’s incredible that after 30 years of corruption and greed guiding policy, President Trump is leading his administration toward common sense, toward improving complex relationships on the road to Making America Healthy Again. With President Trump’s incredible support, we are winning battle after battle."

Despite efforts to tarnish the integrity of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and divide the diverse alliances that support efforts to improve American farming, food supplies, and health, the MAHA movement continues to grow in influence and support. Americans want healthier food supplies and greater support for their local rural farming communities. A sustained focus on protecting and repairing soil health is a crucial bipartisan commitment that will reap benefits for all Americans.

Key takeaways:

– Soil health is determined in large part by microbial life, which in turn is directly connected to plant and human health, crop yields, soil erosion, water pollution, and protection of precious underground aquifers.

– President Trump and the MAHA movement he has enabled are committed to studying soil microbiomes and charting a future that supports farmers, improves food quality, and makes Americans healthy again by nurturing and stewarding the nation’s vital topsoils.