Although the 1900s have been an extremely productive century for soil science, the discipline got its start a century earlier when Malthus challenged the scientific world with his prediction that population growth would outstrip the world's ability to supply food. Soil science is now in a transitory phase, with tensions between production and environmental protection and between the more basic and the applied sciences. In the future, soil scientists will have to be involved both in feeding the world and in helping society.