Policy Recommendations To HHS: Soil Health As A Foundational Tool To Improve Public Health
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POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS TO HHS
Soil Health As A Foundational Tool To Improve Public Health
July 16, 2025
The following policy recommendations address public health, nutrition, research and procurement, and have been prepared in advance of the MAHA Commission’s impending report on policy strategies – a follow up to the MAHA Report released May 2025.
Also see Land Core’s Rooted In Health memo (May 14, 2025)
The connection between soil health and human health plays a pivotal, but often overlooked role in a wide variety of systemic health problems. A robust and growing body of evidence shows that biologically active, nutrient-rich soils yield more nutrient-dense foods, optimally supporting human health and development, while simultaneously building resilient food production systems. Any public policy to address the chronic disease crisis and increasing nutrition insecurity should consider the soil from which food is grown.
As The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission finalize their forthcoming policy recommendations, it is essential soil health be considered as a foundational component to addressing human health. To that end, Land Core offers the following policy recommendations to ensure federal health strategies and research agendas reflect the role of soil health in advancing public health and nutrition security.
Emphasize the role of soil health in the MAHA Commission Report
Combating chronic disease requires upstream prevention-first strategies that begin long before food finds its way to our plates. It has been said that food can either promote healing or drive harm, and its nutritional value is shaped by the condition and biological complexity of the soil it is grown from.
Of particular importance is the role of the human microbiome, which acts as a powerful immunoregulator and is directly influenced by soil microbiology and the broader environmental context in which food is grown. Strikingly, the human and soil microbiomes mirror one another. Just as biologically diverse soils support plant vitality and nutrient uptake, a diverse human microbiome supports metabolism, nutrient absorption, and immune system regulation. Disruptions in either microbial system, through agricultural degradation or poor diet, can trigger cascading negative effects on health. Recognizing soils as an upstream determinant of human health is an essential evolution of our understanding, and a unique policy lever that we have the opportunity to engage in.
Despite the agency’s implications of understanding, the initial MAHA report itself makes almost no mention of soil health. Overlooking this key determinant of food quality, nutrition, and disease prevention was an oversight. This omission weakens the report’s ability to fully address the upstream factors driving chronic disease rates in children, and the population writ large. Recognizing soil health as a foundational starting point to address disease prevention is a significant opportunity, and crucial to crafting effective public health policies that achieve MAHA’s goals of making children, and all Americans, as healthy as possible.
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2024). Exploring linkages between soil health and human health. The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/27459
Brevik, E. C., Slaughter, L., Singh, B. R., Steffan, J. J., Collier, D., Barnhart, P., & Pereira, P. (2020). Soil and human health: Current status and future needs. Air, Soil and Water Research, 13. https://doi.org/10.1177/1178622120934441
Hirt, H. (2020). Healthy soils for healthy plants for healthy humans. EMBO Reports, 21(8). https://doi.org/10.15252/embr.202051069
Pepper, I. L. (2013). The soil health-human health nexus. Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology, 43(24), 2617-2652. https://doi.org/10.1080/10643389.2012.694330
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2. 2025 Dietary Guidelines: Incorporate the role of soil health in public nutrition policy
To effectively confront the rising national burden of chronic disease, the DGAs should evolve to acknowledge the upstream factors that influence the nutritional quality of the food supply. While current guidelines emphasize dietary patterns and individual food choices, they do not address how the health of the soil where our food originates directly affects nutrient density and overall food quality.
A growing body of research links degraded soils to diminished micronutrient content in crops suggesting that even "healthy" dietary choices may fall short in delivering essential nutrients. This nutritional gap contributes to numerous long-term diet-related health outcomes, including: inflammatory disease, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and obesity, to name a few.
Incorporating language around soil health into the DGAs would:
1. Recognize soil as a foundational element in the food system.
2. Support agricultural practices that regenerate soil and enhance the nutrient profile of foods.
3. Strengthen the DGAs role in guiding the public to understand and value regeneratively produced foods that optimally support health and human development.
In January 2025, Land Core submitted a full set of high-level comments to HHS to consider in their revisions to the Dietary Guidelines. See the full letter here.
Oliver, M. A., & Gregory, P. J. (2014). Soil, food security and human health: A review. European Journal of Soil Science, 66(2), 257-276. https://doi.org/10.1111/ejss.12216
Montgomery DR, Biklé A, Archuleta R, Brown P, Jordan J. 2022. Soil health and nutrient density: preliminary comparison of regenerative and conventional farming. PeerJ 10:e12848 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.12848
Soils for nutrition: state of the art. (2022). Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Rome. https://doi.org/10.4060/cc0900en
Brevik, E. C., Steffan, J. J., Rodrigo‐Comino, J., Neubert, D., Burgess, L. C., & Cerdà, A. (2019). Connecting the public with soil to improve human health. European Journal of Soil Science, 70(4), 898-910. https://doi.org/10.1111/ejss.12764
3. Incentivize soil-friendly food in federally-funded procurement
Encourage public and private institutions such as schools and hospitals to source food from local farms that implement soil health practices.
Recognizing the essential role of healthy soils in producing nutrient-dense, contaminant-free food is not just a public health imperative, it’s a procurement strategy. Public nutrition programs, including school meals and other service-based food systems, should prioritize sourcing from farms that employ soil health practices to drive positive health outcomes in the population. By requiring a greater percentage of foods in these programs to come from farms that grow food in healthy soils, we can effectively drive market demand and support domestic land stewardship, while directly addressing the rise in chronic metabolic disorders. This approach aligns with the successful efforts of some states to transform school meals by incorporating whole foods grown locally from healthy soils—setting a powerful precedent for national action.
HHS can lead by example, changing procurement policy within its own departments, purchasing from farmers and suppliers who prioritize soil health, and creating demand for products such as regeneratively raised beef, chicken, dairy, or vegetables and grains grown in healthy soils.
We additionally recommend HHS develop purchasing guidelines, ideally providing an “approved vendor” system that identifies food sourced from healthy soils or “regenerative” US farmers - giving those producers prioritized market access from all who follow HHS best practice guidelines.
Lovy, K., Reiks, M. PhD, RDN (2016). Farm To School Program Activities: Food Service Response To The School Health Policies And Practices Survey 2016. Journal of Childhood Nutrition & Management, 40(2).https://schoolnutrition.org/journal/fall-2021-farm-to-school-program-activities-food-service-response-to-the-school-health-policies-and-practices-survey-2016/
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2024). Exploring linkages between soil health and human health. The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/27459
Krusinski, L., Sergin, S., Jambunathan, V., Rowntree, J. E., & Fenton, J. I. (2022). Attention to the details: How variations in US grass-fed cattle-feed supplementation and finishing date influence human health. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, 6, 851494. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2022.851494
4. Direct funding towards researching the direct connection between healthy soils and human health
HHS should prioritize funding research into the under-explored connections between soil health and human health. While early studies suggest that soil microbiomes play a key role in shaping crop nutrient density and influencing the human microbiome, there is a significant lack of research directly linking soil microbial communities to disease outcomes. The National Academies of Sciences have called attention to this gap, emphasizing the need to understand how soil affects food quality and overall human health during critical developmental periods such as in childhood. Targeted investment in this field could unlock insights that support healthier diets and more resilient public health systems.
Given the growing burden and epidemic of chronic diseases, many of which are diet-related, advancing research in this area is both timely and essential. Targeted investment could unlock insights that support the connection to healthier diets as a result of better agricultural practices that prioritize soil health.
Krusinski, L., Sergin, S., Jambunathan, V., Rowntree, J. E., & Fenton, J. I. (2022). Attention to the details: How variations in US grass-fed cattle-feed supplementation and finishing date influence human health. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, 6, 851494. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2022.851494
Lezaks, D. PhD, Ellerton, M. (2021). The Regenerative Agriculture and Human Health Nexus: Insights from Field to Body. Croatan Institute. https://croataninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/RegenAg_HumanHealth_2021.pdf
Wall, D. H., Nielsen, U. N., & Six, J. (2015). Soil biodiversity and human health. Nature, 528(7580), 69-76. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature15744
Land Core is a 501(c)3 organization that works closely with the USDA, legislators, producers, scientists, NGOs and financial institutions across the country to develop policy recommendations that build healthy soils, resilient farmers and national food security. This includes guiding the successful passage of language in both the House and Senate supporting soil health outcomes at the USDA and helping to secure over $50M in federal investment in Soil Health in the 2018 Farm Bill.
Resources: The Land Core Soil Health Bill Tracker is a comprehensive tool designed to monitor and analyze legislation related to soil health and resilience. It can be used to support bills that align with the priorities of strengthening American agriculture, promoting energy independence, and revitalizing rural communities.
Contact: Aria McLauchlan, Co-Founder & Executive Director, aria@landcore.org