David R. Montgomery

While our radar screens are focused on global warming, peak oil, and biodiversity loss, David Montgomery says we may be missing what he calls the "most basic environmental change sweeping the planet"—soil loss. Conventional agriculture is eroding and degrading the earth's most productive soils at a rate that will ultimately "undermine civilization," he says, unless society rethinks the way it treats this absolutely fundamental resource.

With a Bachelor of Science in geology from Stanford University and a Ph.D from the University of California in geomorphology—the study of landforms and the processes that shape them—Montgomery went on to become a professor at the University of Washington where he studies the evolution of topography and the influence of geomorphological processes on ecological systems and human societies, and the impact of human activities on the landscape. His current research also takes him into the field to the Pacific Northwest of North America and as far away as the Philippines and eastern Tibet.

In 2007, these scientific interests converged in his award-winning book Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations, in which he argues that conventional agriculture, characterized by mechanization such as plows and tillers, has resulted in "mining soil to produce food." Plowing leaves soil bare, he explains, and exposes it to the elements leaving it vulnerable to erosion. Conventional tillage also reduces soil organic matter—the microorganisms and nutrients that make soil productive and fertile. Montgomery warns that soil erosion is now outpacing soil production and this can have dire consequences since it's "an essential resource renewable only at a glacial pace." "Unlike oil, there is no alternative to soil," he writes.

In his book Dirt, Montgomery traces the history of conventional agriculture and describes how ancient societies that depleted their soil resources became vulnerable to ecological and social collapse. In order to avoid this fate, he argues for a revolution in how we practice agriculture today. Conventional agricultural practices—mechanized and plow-based—need to shift to no-till organic farming. And, contrary to public perception, recent studies have shown that organic agriculture can indeed produce the crop yields needed to feed the human population.

Montgomery also explains that the switch to no-till organic will have to happen in any case as the increasing cost of fossil fuels—used to make chemical fertilizers and pesticides and to run equipment—will make the cost of conventional farming prohibitive. "The history of soil loss and degradation in past societies reveals that, paradoxically, sometimes the things that happen slowly are the most difficult to stop."

In 2003, Montgomery's expertise about the evolution of topography and landscapes formed a backdrop for his book King of Fish: The Thousand-year Run of Salmon. In it he explored the human impacts over the last thousand years on salmon—once plentiful in the United Kingdom, New England, and in the Pacific Northwest. Today, salmon are threatened with extinction across much of their ancestral range due to overfishing and anthropogenic changes to the rivers and streams necessary for their survival. Montgomery concludes with recommendations about the kinds of holistic decisions and policies required to save what remains of an icon in the Pacific Northwest.