Digging Deep: How Healthy Soil Can Help Heal Our Planet

Photo by Steven Weeks on Unsplash

We often look to the skies, the oceans, or technological innovations when discussing climate change solutions. But what if a powerful tool lies right beneath our feet? Healthy, living soil is an unsung hero in the fight against climate change and a cornerstone of a truly healthier planet.

To educate myself on soil health, I watched the documentaries Kiss the Ground and Common Ground on Amazon Prime Video. After watching them, I immediately visited their resources website filled with free ebooks and guides that can help all of us advocate for this climate solution and immediately take action in our everyday lives.

For too long, we’ve treated soil like dirt — an inert medium to hold plants up. In reality, healthy soil is a complex, dynamic ecosystem teeming with billions of microbes, fungi, insects, and worms. This underground world plays a crucial role in regulating our climate and supporting life on Earth.

How Does Soil Fight Climate Change? The Carbon Connection

The key lies in carbon sequestration. Here’s how it works:

1. Photosynthesis: Plants pull carbon dioxide (CO2​), a major greenhouse gas, from the atmosphere.
2. Carbon Transfer: Through photosynthesis, plants convert this carbon into sugars to fuel their growth. Some of this carbon builds their leaves and stems, but a significant amount is channeled down into their roots.
3. Soil Storage: Plants release carbon compounds through their roots (exudates) to feed soil microbes. When plants and microbes die and decompose, this carbon becomes part of soil organic matter (SOM) — a complex, dark material rich in carbon.
4. Locking it Away: In healthy, undisturbed soil with a thriving microbial community, this carbon can remain stable and locked away for decades, centuries, or even millennia, effectively removing it from the atmosphere where it would otherwise trap heat.

The Problem with Degraded Soil

Unfortunately, many modern agricultural and land management practices have degraded our soils worldwide. Practices like intensive tilling, overuse of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, deforestation, and leaving soil bare disrupt the soil structure, kill beneficial microbes, and lead to erosion.

When soil is degraded:

• It loses its ability to store carbon. Tilling, for instance, exposes SOM to oxygen, causing microbes to rapidly consume it and release the stored carbon back into the atmosphere as CO2​.
• It can release other potent greenhouse gases like nitrous oxide (N2​O) due to synthetic nitrogen fertilizer overuse.
• Its capacity to absorb and hold water diminishes, increasing runoff, erosion, and vulnerability to both droughts and floods.

Beyond Carbon: The Ripple Effects of Healthy Soil

Improving soil health isn’t just about carbon. It creates a cascade of benefits for a healthier planet:

• Improved Water Management: Healthy soil with good structure absorbs more water, reducing runoff, preventing erosion, and recharging groundwater. This makes landscapes more resilient to both floods and droughts.
• Enhanced Biodiversity: Thriving soil ecosystems support a vast array of life, from microscopic bacteria and fungi to earthworms and insects, forming the base of terrestrial food webs.
• Reduced Pollution: Healthy soil filters water and can break down certain pollutants. By reducing the need for synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, soil-friendly practices also decrease chemical runoff into waterways.
• Increased Food Security & Nutrition: Healthy soils produce more resilient and nutrient-dense crops, contributing to a more stable and nutritious food supply.
• Reduced Need for Inputs: Soils rich in organic matter and microbial life naturally provide more nutrients to plants, lessening the dependence on synthetic fertilizers, the production of which is energy-intensive and contributes to greenhouse gas emissions.
• Reduced Erosion: Strong soil structure, held together by roots and microbial glues, resists being washed or blown away, preserving our precious topsoil.
• Cleaner Air: By reducing wind erosion, healthy soils contribute to cleaner air with less dust and particulate matter.

How Can We Improve Soil Health?

The good news is that we know how to regenerate soil health. These key practices, often grouped under the umbrella of regenerative agriculture or soil health management systems, have proven benefits for soil health:

• Minimize Soil Disturbance: Reducing or eliminating tillage (plowing) keeps the soil structure intact, protects soil organisms, and prevents carbon release.
• Keep the Soil Covered: Planting cover crops or leaving crop residue on the surface protects the soil from erosion, suppresses weeds, and adds organic matter.
• Increase Plant Diversity: Rotating diverse crops and integrating cover crops feeds different types of soil microbes and improves soil structure.
• Keep Living Roots in the Ground: Continuous plant cover ensures the soil microbiome is consistently fed via root exudates.
• Integrate Livestock (Managed Grazing): Well-managed grazing can stimulate plant growth, add manure (nutrients and organic matter), and improve soil health.
• Reduce/Eliminate Synthetic Inputs: Minimizing chemical fertilizers and pesticides allows the natural soil ecosystem to thrive.
• Composting: Adding compost to gardens and farms directly increases soil organic matter.

What Can You Do?

• Support Regenerative Farmers: Look for food grown using soil-healthy practices. Ask questions at farmers’ markets.
• Compost: Turn your food scraps and yard waste into valuable soil amendments for your garden or community garden.
• Garden Smarter: Practice no-dig gardening, use mulch, plant cover crops, and avoid synthetic chemicals.
• Advocate: Support policies that incentivize farmers to adopt soil-healthy practices.
• Learn & Share: Learn more and spread the word about the critical importance of soil health. Watching Kiss the Ground and Common Ground on Amazon Prime Video, and visiting their resources website are great ways to start!

Conclusion

Healing our planet requires looking down as much as we look up. By focusing on regenerating the health of our soils, we can actively draw down atmospheric carbon, enhance water cycles, boost biodiversity, improve food security, and build resilience to climate extremes. Healthy soil is a powerful, natural climate solution hiding in plain sight — it’s time we recognized its potential and started digging deep for a healthier future.