Deficiencies in the soil quality concept and its application

Soil quality is a concept that has deeply divided the soil science community. It has institutionalized and advocated without full consideration of concept weaknesses and. Our paper highlights its disfunctional definition, flawed approach to, and failure to integrate simultaneous functions, which often require contradictory properties and/or management. While the concept arose from a call to protect the and sustain the soil resource, soil quality indexing as implemented may actually some soil functions, environmental quality, or other societal priorities. We offer the view that emphasis on known principles of soil management is a better expenditure of resources for soil stewardship than developing and deploying subjective indices which fail integrate across the necessary spectrum of management outcomes. If the soil quality concept retained, we suggest precisely specifying soil use, not function or capacity, as the criteria for evaluation. Emphasis should be directed toward using available technical information to and educate farmers on management practices that optimize the combined goals of high production, low environmental degradation, and a sustained resource.