Soil health refers to the ability of the soil to function as an ecosystem that supports plants, animals, and humans. Healthy soil has good water retention and structure, which can increase plant resilience to drought, erosion, and pests. 

Sustainable Agriculture relies on healthy soil because, without it, the quantity and quality of crop yields suffer.  Healthy soil has an important role in maintaining clean air, water, plant health, and organism health. Soil health also affects the health of the environment because unhealthy soil releases large amounts of carbon dioxide, contributing to greenhouse gases.

Healthy soil is made up of five main ingredients which are minerals, organic matter, living organisms, water, and gas. The composition can further be broken down into biotic and abiotic factors which are living and non-living elements respectively. Soil composition differs in every region which is why it is important to monitor your soil health.

More than 50% of agricultural soils are degraded and have poor soil health and this is due to erosion, pollution, over-cultivation, fertilizers, and overgrazing. Soil can become contaminated from pollution, excess pesticides, and sewage, and this contamination can limit plant growth. The overuse of fertilizers is a big factor in causing poor soil health and it can result in crop failure. 

Organic matter and clay minerals in the soil are referred to as colloids for their unique property to store chemicals. The soil texture describes the consistency of these minerals and shows the chemical-carrying potential of the soil. Colloids have unique electrostatic properties that allow certain chemicals to attach because of protonation and dissociation. The total amount of these exchange sites that can hold positively charged ions is the cation exchange capacity. This measurement, in turn, reflects the potential of nutrients in the soil that can be carried and stored. Carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen are readily available through air and water, but the plant relies on soil for other macronutrients such as phosphorus, nitrogen, and potassium.

Examples of large compost structures

The only cost associated with this plan is the compost container. Ideally, this container would be substantially large and structurally sound enough to last a long time and hold a large amount of content. Industrial composts are incredibly costly and are outside of the scope of this project. Therefore, we think it is realistic to plan on spending around $500 to create a compost container big enough to hold the community's compost. These funds would be spent on lumber, hardware (nails, screws), and necessary power tools.

Besides this, there will be minimal spending involved with this implementation plan. The compost will require minimal maintenance, and can easily be incorporated as one of the tasks completed by the volunteers that already do work at the SAP.

Profit: While this plan is not designed go maximize profit, it is designed to be economically sustainable. Obviously, it benefits no one to have the SAP spend more money than it earns. With that said, the compost made from the donated food waste can be made available to community members on a pay-what-you-can basis.