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Lal’s work worthy of cheer

Ohioans in search of a bright spot, a person and accomplishment of which they can truly be proud, need look no further than an Ohio State University professor who is quietly working to save the world on two fronts. Rattan Lal is founding director of the university’s Carbon Management and Sequestration Center.

Last week, he won the World Food Prize for his work.

“Dr. Lal is a trailblazer in soil science with a prodigious passion for research that improves soil health, enhances agricultural production, improves the nutritional quality of food, restores the environment and mitigates climate change,” said World Food Prize Foundation President Barbara Stinson.

He is figuring out how to improve the quality and quantity of our produce AND improving the health of our environment.

Some of the rest of us are just pleased to be able to remember which bin to throw the plastic bottles in at work.

It turns out that when you start considering problems from both a human and planetary perspective, you can often find the path that is truly best for both.

Lal figured out that slopping a load of fertilizer on top of depleted soil wasn’t quite the right solution to the problem. Instead, he realized restoring degraded soils through increasing soil carbon and organic matter improved its health, but also helped fight rising carbon dioxide levels in the air by sequestering atmospheric carbon.

Lal’s research shows soil can sequester carbon at rates between 0.9 and 2.6 gigatons per year.

This reminds me of a discussion I’ve had with a couple of my more active environmental advocates, about the importance of saving, replacing and planting more trees. By comparison, one hardwood tree can sequester approximately 1 ton of carbon over 40 years.

Lal is also known around the world for teaching farmers better techniques for soil conservation — another way to tackle the problems of both food production and the health of the environment.

“In the U.S., soil conservation is practiced only on a very small percent of the total areas,” he said. “It’s catching up, but I wish it could be at a faster speed and more area going to that kind of concept.”

Now he’s working on nutrition-centered agricultural problems.

“We must eliminate hunger,” Lal said. “We must also make sure that the food consumed is healthy and this is where the concept of healthy soil, plants, animals, people and the environment is a one and indivisible concept.”

I love his understanding of humans as being part of the planet — worthy of just as much care and concern — as the planet itself. Save both, not create insurmountable challenges for one to save the other. And I love that he is doing it by looking at what seem like small problems; maybe even problems we thought we already had solved in a way that didn’t work out so well.

Too many people fail to look at the need to solve problems with that kind of big-picture, small solution thinking; and with the empathy Lal appears to employ in dealing with those he teaches. His solutions help them do their jobs in a way that benefits THEM, too.

Bravo, sir! Congratulations on your recognition, and thank you for continuing such wonderful work.

Christina Myer is executive editor of The Parkersburg News and Sentinel. She can be reached via e-mail at cmyer@newsandsentinel.com

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