Soil is one of our most useful natural resources. From the soil we get food, clothes, and materials for the homes we live in. Plants thrive when grown in healthy soil. From the plants grown in gardens and on farms we get fruits and vegetables. Trees grown on farms or harvested from forests give us valuable lumber, and their wood can be used to make paper, paints, and numerous other products. The soil anchors tree roots and provides nutrients that the tree needs to grow tall and strong. Farmers recognize the value of soil and prepare it carefully to plant crops of wheat and corn that will be ground into flour to make bread, crackers, pasta, and other foods.
Our animal food also comes from the soil. Cows eat grass, hay, silage, and grain to produce milk, meat, and leather products. All animals eat plants, or other animals that eat plants, and plants grow in the soil. In addition to the products listed above, animals supply us with by-products that are used in paints, camera film, pet food, rubber, crayons, lotions, soaps, leather, medicines, and much more.
The fuel that warms our houses comes indirectly from the soil. Coal is made from plants that grew ages ago. Oil and gas also originate from organic materials, possibly including the remains of animals. Many of the ancient organisms that formed the basis for fossil fuels once grew in the soil or ate other organisms that grew in the soil.
Fish from oceans, rivers, and lakes live on plants (or on other fish who eat plants), and these plants require dissolved minerals that are washed into the seas, rivers, and lakes from the soil.
There are a few things that cannot be linked directly back to the soil. Even most of these can still be related to the soil in some way. Here are a few examples: a volcano (its flanks will turn to soil over time), the ocean (even though plants are part of the water cycle), and the sky (although plants give off oxygen for the air in the atmosphere).
