5 Principles of Soil Health

Soil is all around us. We walk on it every day. We dig and play and plant in it. We harvest from it and nourish ourselves thanks to it. And yet, many of us aren't aware just how critical a resource it is for our future. It's the basis for healthy food production, is a crucial tool in maintaining resilience to floods and droughts, and is host to a quarter of our planet's total biodiversity. So, when Gabe Brown puts out a call to protect soil health, we would all do well to heed his advice. The following excerpt is from Dirt to Soil by Gabe Brown. It has been adapted for the web. Our lives depend on soil. This knowledge is so ingrained in me now that it's hard for me to believe how many soil-destroying practices I followed when I first started farming. I didn't know any better. In college I was taught all about the current industrial production model, which is a model based on reductionist science, not on how natural ecosystems function. The story of my farm is how I took a severely