Book Review: The Soil Will Save Us: How Scientists, Farmers, and Foodies Are Healing the Soil to Save the Planet by Kristen Ohlson
Stephanie Wagner
Thousands of years of poor farming and ranching practices – and, especially, modern industrial agriculture – have led to the loss of up to 80 percent of carbon from the world’s soils. That carbon is now floating in the atmosphere, and even if we stopped using fossil fuels today, it would continue warming the planet. In The Soil Will Save Us, journalist and bestselling author Kristin Ohlson makes an elegantly argued, passionate case for “our great green hope”—a way in which we can not only heal the land but also turn atmospheric carbon into beneficial soil carbon—and potentially reverse global warming.
As the granddaughter of farmers and the daughter of avid gardeners, Ohlson has long had an appreciation for the soil. A chance conversation with a local chef led her to the crossroads of science, farming, food, and environmentalism and the discovery of the only significant way to remove carbon dioxide from the air—an ecological approach that tends not only to plants and animals but also to the vast population of underground microorganisms that fix carbon in the soil. Ohlson introduces the visionaries—scientists, farmers, ranchers, and landscapers—who are figuring out in the lab and on the ground how to build healthy soil, which solves myriad problems: drought, erosion, air and water pollution, and food quality, as well as climate change. Her discoveries and vivid storytelling will revolutionize the way we think about our food, our landscapes, our plants, and our relationship to Earth.
In April, OLWC will be featuring soil health as an integral component of a healthy urban forest ecosystem as well as a way to actively sequester carbon, which is responsible for climate change, from the atmosphere. The Soil Will Save Us is a wonderful introduction to this topic. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in how we are working to combat climate change. The author will be the featured speaker at the Lake Oswego Community Forum on April 8th. You can get more information and register to attend at www.LOSN.org.
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