Soil health — human health: an ecological strategy for modern agriculture

Abstract

Soil degradation is among the most pressing environmental challenges of the twenty-first century, posing serious threats to food security, agroecosystem resilience, the quality of agricultural products, and human health. The depletion of soil organic matter, deterioration of soil structure, contamination by xenobiotics, declining biological activity, and disruption of the functional diversity of the soil microbiome compromise essential ecosystem functions, alter biogeochemical cycling, reduce nutrient availability and soil suppressiveness against phytopathogens, and ultimately diminish the quality and safety of agricultural production. Against this background, the One Health concept has emerged as an important scientific framework, recognizing the health of soils, plants, animals, humans, and the environment as interconnected components of a single integrated system. This review aims to synthesize current knowledge on the relationship between soil health and human health within the One Health framework and to highlight the pivotal role of the soil microbiome in regulating agroecosystem functioning and supporting the ecological transition of modern agriculture. A comprehensive critical review of recent Ukrainian and international literature was conducted, covering soil health, soil microbiome functioning, One Health, agricultural biologization, and microbiome-based technologies. Peer-reviewed publications together with reports from international organizations, including the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, and the European Commission, were critically evaluated to identify current concepts and emerging trends in soil health assessment and their implications for environmental and food security. The available evidence identifies the soil microbiome as the central functional component linking soil, plants, food, and human health. Microbial communities regulate soil organic matter turnover, carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus cycling, nutrient bioavailability, crop productivity, plant tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses, and the nutritional quality and safety of agricultural products. The analysis further indicates that soil microbiome degradation has consequences extending beyond agroecosystem functioning. Reduced environmental microbial diversity is increasingly associated with impaired immune regulation, higher risks of allergic, autoimmune, and metabolic disorders, and lower nutritional quality of food. Current evidence also demonstrates that plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR), arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, microbial consortia, biofungicides, composts, and other microbiome-based approaches effectively restore soil biological activity, improve crop productivity, enhance the biochemical quality of agricultural products, reinforce soil disease suppressiveness, and strengthen agroecosystem resilience to climate change. Stable microbial interaction networks are highlighted as one of the key determinants of ecosystem stability and biological self-regulation. Overall, the findings support a transition towards microbiome-driven agriculture, in which the management of microbial functions replaces the traditional reliance on chemical inputs as the primary strategy for sustaining soil fertility. Integrating microbiome-based technologies into sustainable land management offers a promising pathway to restore soil ecosystem functions, enhance food, environmental, and public health security, and advance the implementation of the One Health concept under rapidly changing climatic and socio-economic conditions.