Soil quality is a concept that has deeply divided the soil science community. It has
been institutionalized and advocated without full consideration of concept weaknesses and
contradictions. Our paper highlights its disfunctional definition, flawed approach to
quantification, and failure to integrate simultaneous functions, which often require contradictory
soil properties and/or management. While the concept arose from a call to protect the
environment and sustain the soil resource, soil quality indexing as implemented may actually
impair some soil functions, environmental quality, or other societal priorities. We offer the
alternative view that emphasis on known principles of soil management is a better expenditure of
limited resources for soil stewardship than developing and deploying subjective indices which fail
to integrate across the necessary spectrum of management outcomes. If the soil quality concept
is retained, we suggest precisely specifying soil use, not function or capacity, as the criteria for
attribute evaluation. Emphasis should be directed toward using available technical information to
motivate and educate farmers on management practices that optimize the combined goals of high
crop production, low environmental degradation, and a sustained resource
