last paragraph: "In the modern era of intensified agriculture, soils are generally managed as a commodity to maximize short-term economic gain. Unfortunately, this concept entirely ignores the consequences for a vast array of biotic and abiotic soil processes that affect air and water quality and most important, the soil itself. After five decades of agrocentric management, the world's arable soils have been degraded and cereal production is increasingly exceeded by grain demand for a burgeoning human population. Should not an issue with global economic, political, and environmental ramifications be taken seriously?"
