An Environmental Existential Threat

My commitment to environmental stewardship began in childhood and has shaped my entire adult life. Whether planting redwood trees with Cub Scouts in Saratoga, California, or volunteering with conservation groups after returning to Virginia, I’ve always believed that caring for the natural world is a responsibility we owe to future generations.

In Virginia, I’ve supported and worked alongside organizations such as Lynnhaven River Now, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, and The Nature Conservancy. I’ve spent days collecting longleaf pine cones, identifying native plants in restoration fields, and clearing trails — hands-on work that deepened my understanding of how fragile and interconnected our ecosystems truly are.

Over the past several years, I’ve focused intensely on one issue that underpins all others: soil health. Through the Virginia Association for Biological Farming, I learned from Dr. Elaine Ingham, one of the world’s leading soil microbiologists. Her work opened my eyes to the extraordinary complexity and importance of soil biology. I completed the Soil Food Web’s foundational courses and, in the summer of 2025, participated in a two‑week workshop on soil biology and composting in Norfolk, England — training that I hope will lead to certification to help farmers rebuild their soils, increase productivity, and strengthen their economic resilience.

Soil is not just dirt beneath our feet. It is the foundation of nearly all life on land. Plants, animals, and humans depend on the living biological systems within healthy soil. When Europeans first arrived in North America, they encountered soils rich in organic matter — so rich that one early explorer wrote he could sink his sword into the earth to the hilt. Today, most Virginia farmland contains only about 1% organic matter. That is far too little to sustain crops without heavy reliance on synthetic fertilizers.

If we restore our soils, we reduce the need for costly fertilizers, increase water retention, and make our farms more resilient to drought. Healthy soil is a buffer against climate instability, a safeguard for food security, and a cornerstone of ecological recovery.

There are many environmental challenges facing us, but soil degradation is the one that threatens everything else. If we continue to strip our soils of organic matter and biological life, we undermine the very systems that make human existence possible. That is why soil health is not just an agricultural issue — it is an existential one.