A Good Soil Test Is Hard to Find

My first piece for Modern Farmer, a new magazine (as of this spring) devoted to the new food movement, is on soil testing, a topic I first explored in an award-winning East Bay Express feature on urban farming and soil contaminants. What I wrote about for Modern Farmer, in short: public soil testing is in decline, and even though the answers it offers are imperfect, it can be an important tool for urban farmers and backyard gardeners hoping to better understand their soil and their crops. Read it here! (It runs online only, not in print.) Hopefully there will be more pieces to come for this interesting new publication.