Since October 2021, Jeff Ishee, Mary Sketch Bryant, and Eric Bendfeldt have had sixty conversations about the health and fertility of soil as part of the podcast. To celebrate World Soils Day 2023, we are sharing three recaps of conversations that were quite memorable with Dr. David R. Montgomery and Anne Bikle authors of What Your Food Ate and Growing a Revolution; Clare Tallamy of Virginia Tech's 2022 Soil Judging Team; and Lee Rinehart a grazing specialist with the National Center for Appropriate Technology.

World Soils Day was organized to bring attention and focus on the importance of healthy soil and the sustainable management of soil resources. David Montgomery and Anne Bikle start the conversation off with a discussion about soil life and how the health of soil can ultimately affect diet and nutrition at a basic level. Clare Tallamy gives a summary of how to assess and judge soil from inside a pit, while Lee Rinehart emphasizes how critical soil health is for grazing management, water quality, and drought resilience.

To join the Virginia Soil Health Coalition and listen to the other 4 The Soil: A Conversation episodes, please visit https://www.virginiasoilhealth.org/ and https://www.4thesoil.org/podcast

To nourish and (re)imagine collaboration, conservation, and community, plan to register and attend the upcoming 2023 Virginia Farm to Table Conference.