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Abstract
From its inception, the Hemy A. Wallace
Institute for Alternative Agriculture has regarded soil quality as a central
issue related to the sustainability of agriculture. Current, reinvigorated
research that focuses on both private and social benefits of soil quality now
provides the seeds for a more fully integrated natural resource and environmental
policy agenda. The key to this process is understanding and documenting
what a broad spectrum of scientists are now telling us: namely,
that healthy soils help maintain water quality, regulate water quantity,
prevent water and wind erosion, buffer global climate changes, ensure food
safety, and enhance biodiversity-all while simultaneously promoting crop
yields. In other words, improved soil health may provide private benefits
to farmers, and social benefits to everyone else.
Links between the soil and environmental quality are not new.
Soil erosion and its impacts on soil productivity have been studied intensively
for the past 70 years. What is new, however, is the breadth implied
by the "new" concept of soil quality, which is now defined by the soil's
mUltiple functions.
The package of environmental benefits believed to be gained by
improving soil quality is becoming more important as society places higher
and higher values on environmental quality. If, for example, increasing
costs are placed on greenhouse gas emissions, it may ultimately prove cost effective
to sequester carbon in the soil. Indeed, one energy company is
already experimenting with a program that entices farmers to change their
tillage practices to increase the levels of organic carbon in the soil. Farmerstaking advantage of programs like this one may boost their own net
returns, while helping to reduce the level of atmospheric greenhouse gases.
Before soil quality can become a focus of policy, however, research
must address the needs of farmers, policy makers, and everyone concerned
with environmental health. We need to know whether soil degradation is a
social problem, and if it is where to target policy. We need to be able to
predict the expected health and environmental benefits from improving soil
quality. And we need to know how much return farmers can expect from
investing in soil quality. The environmental and farm benefit information is
crucial to assessing whether added investments in soil quality will yield net
benefits for farmers and for society. The Henry A. Wallace Institute believes
the potential for net social benefits from soil-quality improvements merits
more attention and, with this report, has attempted to fulfill two goals: (1)
to summarize current research documenting private and social benefits of
enhancing soil quality, and (2) to identify the knowledge gaps that must be
addressed before fully evaluating a soil-quality policy agenda.
Partial funding for this study was provided by The Pew Charitable
Trusts. The report's contents and conclusions, however, are solely the
responsibility of the author and the Wallace Institute.