Soil Tech’s Next Breakthrough: Treating the Ground Like a Patient

A recent Apinions interview is spotlighting a fast-growing idea in agritech: soil isn’t just a resource — it’s a patient.

Agronomist Donnie Engelhardt says the path to healthier food, livestock, and people starts with the health of the ground itself. “Soil is the original patient,” he said. “If food is medicine, we need to treat the soil first.”

A Clinical Approach to Agriculture

Engelhardt’s philosophy began years ago in grain country, where he noticed certain farmers consistently delivered seed that was unmistakably stronger.

The difference wasn’t chance — it was regenerative practice, reduced chemical dependency, and a closer alignment with biology. That observation now shapes his work helping Montana producers adopt soil-first systems that boost both productivity and profitability.

He evaluates fields like a clinician reading vitals. Soil sampling must happen at the same GPS points, the same time of year, even the same time of day, because moisture and temperature can shift readings hour by hour. pH is his first diagnostic — if it’s off, fertilizer becomes a temporary fix rather than a solution.

He also looks at structural fundamentals most lab printouts miss, including whether the soil can breathe, whether it can hold water, and whether it has retained essential minerals that decades of conventional practices have stripped away.

From Drone Scans to Soil Telemetry

Modern tools are expanding visibility above the canopy. Drones equipped with multispectral, hyperspectral, thermal, RGB, and LiDAR sensors can flag stress long before it shows up to the naked eye. Engelhardt says these insights are helpful, but they’re still incremental.

The real breakthrough he’s anticipating is underground. He envisions live soil telemetry — in-ground sensors streaming moisture, temperature, nutrient movement, and microbial activity every 30 minutes.

That level of real-time monitoring would effectively give each field a “soil digital twin,” letting farmers adjust conditions in season rather than analyzing problems after the fact.

Optimizing vs. Maximizing

Engelhardt is blunt about the distinction between maximizing yield and optimizing production. Maximization chases bushels; optimization focuses on profit, resilience, and nutrient density. Corn illustrates the disconnect.

When so much of the crop feeds ethanol rather than people or livestock, the system naturally undervalues nutritional quality. Livestock genetics, he adds, show the same dynamic — size often wins out over vitality.

Regenerative management flips that formula by reducing reliance on synthetics and working with biology to produce nutrient-dense outputs that are better for consumers and for long-term soil health.

The Market Is Starting to Move

A generational shift is underway as younger farmers and ranchers push toward regenerative practices. Certifications like Regenified and frameworks from Understanding Ag are helping the industry speak a common language, but Engelhardt believes the next major demand signal will come from consumers.

His proposal: nutrient-density labels on produce. If shoppers could see “nutrition per bite” the same way they see price per pound, he argues, the market would quickly reward soil-first operations.

Who Pays for the Transition?

Dersh pressed the economics, and Engelhardt pointed to several emerging pathways. A universal Soil Health Index could anchor premiums, incentives, or even tokenized rewards across the supply chain.

Expanded ecosystem-services markets — valuing water retention, biodiversity, and nutrient density, not just carbon — could stabilize revenue for farmers. And if healthier soil correlates with healthier populations, insurers and public agencies may ultimately have financial incentives to invest upstream.

A One Health Vision

The larger picture resembles a One Health model, where agronomists, veterinarians, physicians, ecologists, and feed specialists operate from shared risks and shared outcomes. But the data layer has catching up to do.

Soil records today look a lot like healthcare before digital transformation: fragmented, inconsistent, and lacking continuity. Standardized sampling today and real-time telemetry tomorrow could finally give agriculture the visibility it needs to treat causes, not symptoms.

Engelhardt’s thesis is straightforward: know the vitals, instrument the ground, and align economic incentives with measurable health outcomes.

“The largest asset on any operation is the soil,” he said. “Heal the ground, and it will heal us back.” If the last century prioritized yield, Engelhardt believes the next one will prioritize quality — powered by sensors, data, and a deeper understanding of what truly feeds us.