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Abstract
Proposal of soil health bills in U.S. state legislation has increased over the last few years. While some links between soil health and public health are well established, the extent to which current soil health legislation addresses public health implications is unknown. In particular, little is known about the scope of current legislation, including whether legislation references known links between soil health and public health. This represents a potential gap in existing legislation which will only grow more pressing as population growth is expected to place a higher yield demand on soils in the future. This project utilized a two-phase qualitative policy analysis to address this gap. During phase one current proposed and passed legislation was identified and coded for themes. Subsequently, soil health professionals involved with identified bills were recruited for semi-structured interviews. Interviews were coded and compared for themes. In total, 12 bills from 11 separate states were analyzed. Legislation focused primarily on soil’s capacity to sequester carbon and improve water quality, while public health accounted for a minimal proportion of total codes. Interviews illuminated contextual themes such as climate change motivating bill proposal, understanding of soil as a living ecosystem, and soil nutrient level as a link between soil and public health. Including a reference to climate change was reported as a barrier to bill passage in certain states, while a focus on improving farmers’ profit margins reportedly facilitated bill support. Interviewees commonly cited state soil and water conservation districts and the National Resources Conservation Service as key partners but did not report collaboration with public health entities. While these findings provide perspective into the scope soil health legislation, more research will be needed to evaluate legislative programs as more bills are enacted as well as to determine future opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration from a public health perspective.
