Dr. Daphne Miller, Project Scientist, Center for Occupational and Environmental Health, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, and Associate Clinical Professor, Department of Family Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, gives a summary of various interdisciplinary studies that benefit human and soil health at the Conference on Connections Between Soil Health and Human Health, October 2018, in Silver Spring, Maryland. Dr. Miller describes symptoms of diseases she has witnessed throughout her career as a clinical physician, which she believes may be related to agricultural practices. She also suggests potentially valuable avenues of research that could benefit both soil health and human health.
The Conference on Connections Between Soil Health and Human Health was designed as a working meeting to provide a roadmap for collaborative, interdisciplinary leadership and exploration into the connections within and among soil health, the microbiome continuum from soil to plants to humans, food safety, human nutrition, fate and transport of human health-related substances in soil, and community health. Among those in attendance were soil health researchers, human health researchers, soil and medical science practitioners, public health experts, and agronomists. In addition, policy makers and representatives from soil health and human health research funding organizations discussed implications and opportunities for advancing research and societal benefits in this emerging field.