With the world’s population set to increase to over nine billion people by 2050, it’s becoming increasingly important to find new and better ways of growing more food on agricultural land. Complicating matters, however, is the fact that much of the world’s soil is experiencing a decline in health. Some areas are becoming contaminated with waste and toxic materials, and others are losing nutrients upon which plants depend for sustenance.

Fortunately, professionals with environmental training can use their skills and knowledge to help address some of the problems that lead to decreased soil health. Here are some of the ways you can contribute after sustainability college.

A School of Sustainability Can Teach You Skills That Can Help You Analyze Soil Health

Many different factors contribute to the state of soil health. For example, the use of some fertilizers may change the soil’s level of acidity, which can prevent some plants from absorbing water and minerals. Another example could be pesticides leading to a lack of worms, which in turn causes low levels of important bacteria in some soils, or many other issues. Often, many different issues are present at once.

Because there can be many different elements contributing to poor soil health, it can be difficult to ascertain how best to approach making adjustments to a given environment in order to improve the quality of its soil. If you complete a Sustainability Master’s online, however, you will receive extensive training in important analytical skills that can help you perform research into the various pressures affecting soil health.

Under the instruction of experienced faculty, you will learn how to collect data and make computer models that can predict how a system will change over time, and how introducing change to that system could help it improve. Using these skills, you can discover which elements of an environment are most likely to contribute to better soil health and use that knowledge to make a powerful case for change.

Use Training from Your School of Sustainability to Advocate for Necessary Change

Even when it is clear what kinds of changes should be made to improve soil health, it can be difficult to actually implement those changes. For example, it may be necessary for long-term soil health that nitrogen-based fertilizers be eliminated from an area in order to allow organic matter in the soil to return. For the short term, however, it may be of greater economic benefit for the landowner to continue using the fertilizer to increase crop yield, and so the elimination will not be made.

For improvements in soil health to be achieved, it will be important for experts to do an effective job of communicating with stakeholders like farmers, agro-businesses, and other individuals and groups. Listening to their economic and cultural concerns can help generate understanding of the perceptions and behaviors that are prevalent in the agricultural industry. This can then help with the creation of advocacy material that addresses those concerns when making the case for necessary change.

A good school of sustainability will allow you to explore how best to conduct the research and analysis necessary for this kind of targeted communication, as well as how to lead programs that result in action on important environmental issues. These skills are of vital importance to many careers in environmental advocacy and protection, and by mastering them, you can take a leading role in the promotion of soil health, as well as in many other arenas of environmentalism. 

Do you want to earn your Sustainability Degree online?

Contact Unity College to learn how you can get started.