Berman D. Hudson

Berman Hudson, Ph.D., has more than three decades of experience as a soil scientist with the National Cooperative Soil Survey, Director of the Soil Survey, Washington, DC, and as a veteran soil science consultant to the forest product industry. In addition to mapping soils in the field, the author served as Assistant State Soil Scientist of North Carolina; State Soil Scientist of Maryland; National Leader, Soil Survey Center, Lincoln, Nebraska; and Director, Soil Survey, Washington, DC. Dr. Hudson has conducted soil studies in Zimbabwe, Ghana, Indonesia, Bulgaria, Denmark, and the Virgin Islands.

As a consultant, he trained soil survey crews and supervised soil mapping activities for companies such as International Paper and Potlatch. He has published a number of influential research papers that altogether have been cited in more than 1,000 scientific articles.

His books Our Good Earth: A Natural History of Soil (2020) and Food and Human Evolution: How Ancestral Diets Shaped Our Minds and Bodies (2021) develop a rich and multifaceted picture of how the critical resource of soil is formed, why we eat what we do, and what effects that has on our minds and bodies. He draws on a thorough knowledge of soil science, agriculture, and food production technology acquired through extensive formal education and broad work experience.

His writing is clear, accessible, and enriched with apt insights drawn from the classics of history and world literature.