Influencing public policy | Experts need to explain findings in terms public can relate to
WINNIPEG — Soil scientists who really want to influence public policy need to tell meaningful stories about the importance of soil rather than generate specialized results for a handful of peers.
Henry Janzen, a researcher with Agriculture Canada, says that doesn’t mean experiments and the resulting data are irrelevant, but scientists need to use numbers, graphs and computer models as a starting point to give meaning to the research.
“It’s the narratives that takes the data and those graphs and makes it accessible,” said Janzen, a soil biochemist in Lethbridge who spoke at the Canadian Society of Soil Science annual conference in Winnipeg July 23.
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Janzen said the land around Leth-bridge is an example of a story connected to soil.
Much of the land in southern Alberta was still native prairie grass a century ago.
Telling the story of the arrival of the plow and the subsequent human activity is a useful tool to communicate the relevance of soil and its connection to the ecology and sociology of the region over time.
Janzen said these kinds of stories may sound more like art than science, but specific scientific data, such as soil organic matter improvements or nitrogen losses, don’t tell the public much about the relevance of soil.
“Ultimately, most of us … we want to understand the meaning,” Janzen said following his presentation in Winnipeg.
“What does it mean to the way I live on this land? What does it mean for my own behaviour? I think it’s narrative that takes a fact, converts it and steers it into a meaning.”
Satish Gupta, a University of Minnesota soil scientist who also spoke at the Winnipeg conference, said soil is essential for food production, but policy makers rarely pay attention.
“We (soil scientists) haven’t done a good job in promoting soil,” he said.
“Soil is fundamental to life. We all know that. Our politicians and our elected officials, they are not paying attention.”
One factor behind the lack of interest, at least in North America, is that Canadians and Americans are well fed. Gupta said people don’t think much about soil unless they are hungry.
“I come from India and I have told many people that when I was a kid, in the 1950s and ’60’s, I ate lamb’s quarters.”
He said another challenge is that people automatically think about farming when they think about soil , which is why scientists need to talk about the overall value of soil, including its effect on water and air quality.
“Looking upon the soil not just as a place where wheat sprouts out of,” he said.
“We need to grow food and at the same time sustain biodiversity and help mitigate climate change and all of these other objectives.”
Phil Haygarth, chair of soil and water science in Lancaster University’s environment centre in England, said soil scientists need to meet and listen to citizens, both urban and rural, if they want to influence public policy.
“You’ve got to inspire people and bring people together … farmers, schoolchildren.”
Gupta said some scientists are able to make soil exciting, engaging and relevant, but they are few and far between.
Janzen said a good first step would be improving how scientists communicate with the public. Their language should be much clearer when they share their knowledge or write journal articles on their research.
“Most of what we’re finding is really not as complicated as we make it out to be. Why can’t we phrase what we have learned and our intrigue and our fascination … in ways that is appealing to (more than) a small cohort of people who are experts in that small area,” he said.
“We might want to experiment not only in the laboratory but in the crafting of our narratives … if we are to be read and influential.”
