International Year of Soils: August 2015

Aug 04, 2015

Soils support health

As declared by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2015 is being recognized as the International Year of Soils.

Soils, for the most part, get taken for granted. It gets walked on, played on and tossed around at construction sites. The UN, along with organizations including World Rural Forum, International Union of Soil Sciences and Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) are doing their part to make people aware of soil’s importance in everyday life.

To promote the role of soil, the SSSA produces a short monthly video, each with a different theme.

The theme for August is “soils support health”.

As land continues to be developed, farmers need healthy soil more than ever.

“We’re growing more food on less land than we were decades ago,” said SSSA’s Jim Toomey in the August video. “That means we expect more of the soil we have left for producing food. Our growers have to make sure that the soil has the right amount of nitrogen, phosphorous and other nutrients.”

The nutrients people get from the food they eat, also come from the soil.

“Food that’s grown in fertile soil full of good elements and minerals packs more nutrition than food grown in weaker soil,” said Toomey. “There are bacteria in the soil that take nitrogen from our air, process it and make it available to plants for food. This is called nitrogen fixation.”

Be sure to go back and check out the other themes for the International Year of Soils:

January – Soils Sustain Life
February – Soils Support Urban Life
March – Soils Support Agriculture
April – Soils Clean and Capture Water
May – Soils Support Buildings and Infrastructure
June – Soils Support Recreation
July – Soils are Living

Check back in September when the theme is “soils protect the natural environment”.

Tell us your thoughts about the International Year of Soils. What are some things you’ve found interesting about soil?

Video: Finding her path back to the Swine Industry each time with Dr. Miriam Martin.

Dr. Miriam Martin is Director of Animal Health and Welfare from the North American Meat Institute.

We discuss how she grew up in Swine Production on a small Hog Farm in Missouri. We discuss her enhanced career path, and exciting things in store at her job at NAMI. We discuss her mentor Temple Grandin, and her time at Colorado and Kansas State University and learning about Swine behaviour and pain research. We discuss ASF preparedness, Safeguarding Animal Health and finally if we need to define a leadership strategy or outside box approach to move the Swine Industry forward.

About Our Guest Dr. Miriam S. Martin grew up on a ranch in Meadville, Missouri. Miriam completed he undergraduate degree in animal science at the University of Missouri where she discovered her passion for animal welfare. She earned a Masters in livestock behavior and welfare in Temple Grandin’s group at Colorado State University before enrolling in a Doctoral program at Kansas State University in August 2018. Miriam is the first recipient of the FFAR Fellowship in the history of Kansas State University. Dr. Martin’s doctoral studies focused on investigating pain and analgesic strategies in food animals. These studies resulted in the publication of 8 first author papers and 5 co-author publications. Miriam served as the Midwest ASAS Graduate Director and the CVM GSA Vice President. She is also the recipient of a 2022 ASAS Midwest Young Scholars Award. Dr. Martin successfully defended her Ph.D. on October 2021 and she currently serves as the Director of Animal Health and Welfare for the North American Meat Institute.