The Soil Health Working Group of the Food Systems Research Center at UVM published their white paper in the Phytobiomes Journal. The publication is entitled, Resilient Soils for Resilient Farms: An Integrative Approach to Assess, Promote and Value Soil Health for Small- and Medium-Size Farms.
A multidisciplinary team of UVM research and Extension faculty has a common interest in improving the performance of small- and medium- sized farms through monitoring soil health. Their long-term goal is to develop practical applications to enable success in the context of ongoing environmental and economic challenges that benefit the agricultural landscape. They have proposed an innovative research agenda that combines advancements in basic science (e.g., soil microbiome), new technologies (e.g., sensors to monitor metrics of soil health and environmental quality), devising new soil management tools, and ecological economics as a tool to quantify the value of soil health to society.
The publication authors include Deborah A. Neher, Jeanne Marie Harris, Catherine E. Horner, Matthew J. Scarborough, Appala Raju Badireddy, Joshua W. Faulkner, Alissa C. White, Heather Darby, Joshua C. Farley, and Eric J. Bishop-von Wettberg.