Four Challenges Soil Science Must Overcome to Remain Relevant in the Future

Abstract

An increasingly urban population has no connection with food production. As a result, most do not fully appreciate the value of soil. Soil scientists are retiring, and some positions are being reassigned. Since there are too few soil science graduates to fill the remaining positions, they are often filled with less-than-qualified people from other majors. Recognizing these constraints, soil scientists train others, decreasing the demand for soil scientists. Engineers with limited background (maybe one or two soils classes) are the practicing and recognized experts by regulators, industry, and government at all levels. What influences my perspective? I have degrees in general agriculture, plant science, and soil science. I have taught at regional universities for 19 years—any class with soil in the title, plus a few crops classes—and coached soils and crops teams. I saw a need to reach out to K-12 students, and so my alter ego, Dr. Dirt, was born. I gave presentations about the importance of soil and food production to more than 20,000 K-12 students (mostly middle school), conducted workshops for more than 500 teachers, and developed online teaching activities and resources (www.doctordirt.org; www.youtube.com/drdirtsoilvideos). I serve on the K-12 Committee of the Soil Science Society of America (SSSA). I became a Certified Professional Soil Scientist (CPSS) in 1999 and was licensed as a Professional Geoscientist (PG) in Texas in 2003. I am serving my second term on the Council of Soil Science Examiners, which develops and oversees the CPSS program exams. In 2011, I left academia as a full professor for the private sector and now work for a consultant firm as a senior soil scientist. In light of my diverse background in academia, K-12 outreach, and the private sector, I perceive there are four (at least) major challenges that demand the immediate attention of soil scientists around the world. Kids, students, and many adults no longer have any connection to the soil or to food production. Ask students where their food comes from and the common answer is “the store”; their milk comes from a carton. Many in this urban society have never seen a vegetable garden, much less grown their own vegetables. Such lack of experience makes people susceptible to misinformation and misconceptions. People believe whatever the media, movie star, or “authority” of choice says about natural resources, water conservation and reuse, production and reclamation of energy and minerals, farming, organic foods and production, GMOs, etc. Soil scientists must find ways to gain visibility and enter resource discussions as experts with credible evidence. We have many challenges, but challenges create opportunities, like the next one. When I began teaching in 1992, faculty were lamenting low enrollments in agronomy, crops, and soils and brainstorming on how to increase enrollment. Demographics had changed, but universities had not adapted, assuming people would always be interested in food production. Colleges and departments changed names without definitive mission changes. In response, recruitment of high school seniors increased, and SSSA developed an Ambassadors Program, career brochures, and other outreach materials. However, 20 years later, similar discussions and laments continue. Clay Robinson, aka Dr. Dirt, has worked in academia, K-12 outreach, and the private sector, and sees at least four major challenges that soil scientists must address to remain relevant in the future. We are starting too late. If we wait until students are in high school (especially seniors) to recruit, we have lost them. We need to turn kids onto our science early. This is the focus of the SSSA K-12 Committee. We have teacher and kid websites. We published a middle school soils book and are completing a high school soils/environmental science text. With the help of the editorial board of the Journal of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Education (becoming Natural Sciences Education in January 2013), we developed a peer-reviewed K-12 lesson plan process. In the next year, we will begin developing lesson plans for each of the state soils and recruiting/enlisting help to develop/supply soil kits for teachers. Visit www.soils4teachers.org to see some of our work. SSSA is a critical stakeholder in the 2012 revisions of the National K-12 Science Standards. We reviewed and commented on the first draft and will review the second draft when it is published. We do not expect to get new standards just for soils, but there are many places soils can be used to teach existing science standards. Soils4teachers.org offers many resources for teachers. What can you do? Be visible, get involved, and reach out to kids and teachers in your city or region. SSSA has many resources to help. Let kids know that soil science is a profession with many career options and that jobs are available. The land grant system is a three-legged stool: higher education, research, and extension. This extension mindset permeates agriculture and soil science. The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service provides technical services without cost to producers. Soil scientists freely give away knowledge and expertise that engineers sell. We train non-soil scientists to work in our areas of expertise. Though it is a wonderful tool, WebSoilSurvey (http://websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov) typifies this attitude. Soil scientists are making freely available to the public interpretations that engineers would sell. Engineers then use these interpretations (and often misinterpret them because they lack the proper background in soil science) to develop plans and reports and profit from our generosity. It is imperative that soil scientists interpret soil information. This leads to the next issue. To the outside world, certification and licensing represent a certain level of competence, expertise, and ethics—in short, professionalism. Soil scientists came to this table much later than engineers (first licensing act in 1907). The first soil science certification program began in 1977 and the first licensing program in 1997. Now we must convince states, regulators, government agencies, and potential clients that we are better qualified to address many issues over which engineers have long claimed and practiced expertise. Soil scientist licensing or registration programs exist in 15 states; nine use the SSSA exams as qualification to receive a license, and several states are working toward that end. If you are not certified or licensed, begin the process now by visiting www.soils.org/certifications/cpss-cpsc. If your state does not yet have licensing, see what you can do help move it along by contacting Dawn Ferris (dferris@sciencesocieties.org) or Luther Smith (lsmith@sciencesocieties.org) at the SSSA headquarters office. Education is not the answer but is certainly a component of the solution. Soil scientists need to be active in educating K-12 students, college students, the business and regulatory world, and society at large about the importance of soil science to air and water quality, reclamation, environmental sustainability, and their overall health and well-being. Support certification and licensing programs, and become an advocate for your profession at all levels. There are no guarantees that addressing these challenges will ensure the continued existence of our profession, but it is certain that failure to do so will ensure its demise.