Exploring Linkages Between Soil Health and Human Health

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.

Contents

• The National Academies of SCIENCES • ENGINEERING • MEDICINE
• COMMITTEE ON EXPLORING LINKAGES BETWEEN SOIL HEALTH AND HUMAN HEALTH
• BOARD ON AGRICULTURE AND NATURAL RESOURCES
• FOOD AND NUTRITION BOARD
• Reviewers
• Acknowledgments
• Preface
• Acronyms and Abbreviations
• Summary
  • THE COMMITTEE’S PROCESS AND SCOPE OF THE STUDY
  • LINKAGES BETWEEN SOIL MICROORGANISMS AND HUMAN HEALTH
  • LINKAGES BETWEEN AGRICULTURAL MANAGEMENT PRACTICES AND HUMAN HEALTH
  • LINKAGES BETWEEN AGRICULTURAL MANAGEMENT PRACTICES AND THE NUTRITIVE VALUE OF FOOD
  • IMPROVING SOIL HEALTH TO IMPROVE HUMAN HEALTH
  • GOING FORWARD
• 1. Introduction
  • THE COMMITTEE AND ITS CHARGE
  • THE COMMITTEE’S PROCESS
  • SCOPE AND ORGANIZATION OF THE REPORT
  • REFERENCES
• 2. The Connectivity of Health
  • SOIL AND ONE HEALTH
  • SOIL HEALTH
  • HUMAN HEALTH AND WELLNESS
  • MICROBIOMES AND ONE HEALTH
  • REFERENCES
• 3. The Importance of Soil Health to Nature’s Contributions to People
  • WHICH OF NATURE’S CONTRIBUTIONS TO PEOPLE ARE DERIVED FROM SOIL?
  • MATERIAL NATURE’S CONTRIBUTIONS TO PEOPLE
  • REGULATING NATURE’S CONTRIBUTIONS TO PEOPLE
  • NONMATERIAL NATURE’S CONTRIBUTIONS TO PEOPLE
  • TRADE-OFFS AMONG NATURE’S CONTRIBUTIONS TO PEOPLE
  • CONCLUSIONS
  • REFERENCES
• 4. Impacts of Agricultural Management Practices on Soil Health
  • INDICATORS OF SOIL HEALTH
  • AGRICULTURAL MANAGEMENT PRACTICES
  • CONCLUSIONS
  • REFERENCES
• 5. Linkages Between Agricultural Management Practices and Food Composition and Safety
  • LINKING AGRICULTURAL MANAGEMENT PRACTICES TO NUTRIENT DENSITY
  • EFFECTS OF FOOD PROCESSING ON NUTRIENT DENSITY
  • LINKING AGRICULTURAL MANAGEMENT PRACTICES TO FOOD SAFETY
  • CONSUMER FOOD CHOICES
  • CONCLUSIONS
  • REFERENCES
• 6. Interactions of Soil Chemical Contaminants, Soil Health, and Human Health
  • HUMAN EXPOSURE TO CONTAMINANTS IN SOIL
  • CONTAMINANT CASE STUDIES
  • CONCLUSIONS
  • REFERENCES
• 7. Microbiomes and the Soil–Human Health Continuum
  • MICROBIOME FEATURES AS INDICATORS OF HEALTH STATUS
  • SOILS, MICROBES, AND HUMAN HEALTH
  • CONCLUSIONS
  • REFERENCES
• 8. Going Forward
  • MONITORING AND MANAGING DATA
  • FROM WASTES TO RESOURCES
  • COMPLEXITY AND COLLABORATION
• Appendix A. Committee Member Biographical Sketches
• Appendix B. Public Meeting Agendas

Suggested citation:

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2024.Exploring Linkages Between Soil Health and Human Health. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/27459.

Digital Object Identifier: https://doi.org/10.17226/27459

Library of Congress Control Number: 2024943234

This publication is available from the National Academies Press, 500 Fifth Street, NW, Keck 360, Washington, DC 20001; (800) 624-6242 or (202) 334-3313; http://www.nap.edu.

Printed in the United States of America.