Healthy soils for sustainable food production and environmental quality

Soil is the foundation for sustainable foodproduction and environmental protection. Created byunsustainable land management practices and a range ofsocial, economic and environmental drivers, soil degrada-tion and pollution have been an ongoing threat tointernational food security and environmental quality.Soil degradation and pollution assessments are, however,often focused on the soil itself with little scope to devisenew soil management approaches that match foodproduction systems and/or environmentalprotection.This study draws lessons from an Australia-China JointResearch Center Program, Healthy Soils for SustainableFood Production and Environmental Quality: a researchplatform that has brought together multi-disciplinaryapproaches fromworld-renowned universitiesandresearch organizations in Australia and China. To thisend, a framework is presented for future soil managementin a new way that combines excellence in research,industry and policymakers in a partnership that will ensurenot only the right focus of the research but also that high-quality outputs will be transferable to industry and end-users.