Bruce Ball

Bruce Ball PhD is an internationally-recognised researcher and teacher of soil science. A retired Reader in Soil Science, with much experience overseas, he specialises in soil health and greenhouse gases in organic farming and conservation agriculture. Brought up in North-east Scotland, living close to the soil and working on farms from an early age, he continues to bring the wonders of the soil and its importance to the planet to farmers, students, gardeners, children and the general public. He has published 220 technical papers and 27 book chapters and books. His most recent published technical book is Visual Soil Evaluation (CABI Books) – co-authored with Lars Munkholm. Recently he has developed spiritual and anthropomorphic ideas along with poetry to further his goal of connecting people and soil. This resulted in the book The Landscape Below (Wild Goose) which paved the way for a succession of invited workshops and lectures. These combined with artworks from recent art classes have allowed him to further develop and express his unique ideas about the centrality of soil to life in his new book ‘Healing Soil’.