Alex McBratney: the importance of studying soil
Unipd and the University of Sydney are working together during the Winter School “Food & Health”, a two-week appointment that focuses on how we feed ourselves and what are the effects of these actions in everyday life.
One of the aspects explored in the winter school is soil: the expert from Sydney is Alex McBratney, professor of Digital Agriculture and Soil Science, that won the “Nobel Prize for Soil”, one of the highest awards in this research field.
“Soil is the material from which we grow 95% of what we eat – said professor McBratney – so this is a very important topic to study: everybody talks about food and water security, but people don’t really talk about the security of soil”.
“I think people don’t realize that to make soil it takes millennia – continues prof. McBratney – if we lose or destroy it we really can’t renew it that easy”.
