A Call for Holistic Soil Ecology

Abstract

The connections between agriculture, soil science, and human health have been well understood for centuries, but the development of state societies and market economies gradually segmented and subverted that knowledge into narrow specializations. Agriculture came under management of nation builders seeking to broaden productive capacities to further influence and power. Soil science was relegated to the laboratories and test plots of biology and chemistry in the adoption of hybrids and chemical fertilizers. Human health sciences compiled volumes of research on disease, which generated still more laboratory research on isolated cures through chemical intrusion.