David Montgomery

Geomorphologist, Environmentalist

Growing a Revolution: Bringing Our Soil Back to Life

Prof. David Montgomery studies the processes shaping Earth’s surface and how they affect ecological systems—and human societies. His work explores what the Earth’s soil tells us about our health, our history and our future. The author of several popular science books promoting sustainability and environmentally friendly farming practices, Dr. Montgomery offers practical solutions for one of our time’s most salient crises.
What Your Food Ate
Good health, for people and plants, depends on microbiomes, the communities of Earth’s smallest and least loved creatures. What Your Food Ate delivers a new truth: the roots of good health start on farms. The health of the soil on those farms ripples through to that of crops, livestock, and ultimately us.
Can we have quality and quantity? Luckily, what’s good for the land is good for us, too. It’s possible to bring a farm’s soil back to life. Cutting through standard debates about conventional and organic farming, Dr. Dave Montgomery shows how the combination of no-till planting, cover crops, and diverse crop rotations sustains the soil microbiome, and thereby a farmer’s crops and livelihood. An inspiring vision in which agriculture becomes the solution to environmental problems and improves the health of our bodies and our communities.

About Prof. Montgomery:

David R. Montgomery is a professor of Earth and Space Sciences at the University of Washington, studying geomorphology, the evolution of landscapes. His research interests range from the co- evolution of the Pacific salmon and the topography of the Pacific Northwest to the environmental history of Puget Sound rivers, interactions among climate, tectonics, and erosion in shaping mountain ranges, giant glacial floods in eastern Tibet and northeastern India, Martian geomorphology, and the role of agricultural soil erosion in the longevity of human societies. In 2008 he received a MacArthur ‘genius’ award for his “fundamental contributions to our understanding of the geophysical forces that determine landscape evolution and of how our use of soils and rivers has shaped civilizations past and present”. He has received two Washington State Book awards. He is the author of The Hidden Half of Nature (2016), Growing a Revolution (2018), What Your Food Ate (2023), and several other popular science books.

The Response

“Dr. Montgomery’s lecture was able to touch upon issues that are not only pertinent but relative to our environment and community. The students and staff present were extremely impressed with his lecture–wrapping Sustainability, Geology, Anthropology, Ecology, History and Agriculture into one compelling and easy to understand lecture is an incredible feat! I highly recommend Dr. Montgomery for an incredibly in-depth and comprehensive talk for anyone!”
Kat Kaszpurenko, Union Programming Coordinator, Fort Lewis College
 
“David’s talk presented a deeply well reasoned explanation of how topsoil has affected human civilizations and how it will determine our future. Judging by the collection of conversations afterwards, he clearly got the audience thinking and sparked a valuable interdisciplinary dialogue at University of British Columbia.”
Justin Ritchie, AMS Sustainability Coordinator, University of British Columbia
 
“Thanks for a fabulous lecture! Dave Montgomery is a rare breed of public speaker, who can engage a diverse audience at all levels and from multiple disciplines, with passion and wit.”
Candice Goucher, Professor of History, Washington State University Vancouver
 
“In mounting our annual Congress on the single topic of soil, we wanted to have a keynote speaker who would not only show the big picture on the importance of handling soil in agricultural communities, but someone who could speak our farmer’s language. We were very privileged to have Dr. Montgomery. There was nothing but praise on his down to earth (no pun intended) approach and the big bonus was that they really got what he was saying. There was much discussion over lunch that day. Please extend my heartfelt thanks to Dr. Montgomery for taking the time to care about a small section of our country.”
Donna Crawford, Administrative Coordinator, Horticulture Nova Scotia
 
“With a scientist’s rigor, a historian’s curiosity and an environmentalist’s passion, Montgomery is unsettling accepted wisdom about both local and global environmental change by exploring the ecological consequences of a wide range of Earth surface processes.”
2008 MacArthur Foundation ‘Genius’ Award statement.