The Soil and Health: A Study of Organic Agriculture
Abstract
During his years as a scientist working for the British government in India, Sir Albert Howard conceived of and refined the principles of organic agriculture. Howard's The Soil and Health became a seminal and inspirational text in the organic movement soon after its publication in 1945. The Soil and Health argues that industrial agriculture, emergent in Howard's era and dominant today, disrupts the delicate balance of nature and irrevocably robs the soil of its fertility. Howard's classic treatise links the burgeoning health crises facing crops, livestock, and humanity to this radical degradation of the Earth's soil. His message - that we must respect and restore the health of the soil for the benefit of future generations - still resonates among those who are concerned about the effects of chemically enhanced agriculture.
... Carbon is a fundamental element in the structure and function of terrestrial ecosystems, while the carbon cycle [11] is central to, and an essential component of organic agriculture, circular agricultural systems, sustainable agro-ecosystem management, regenerative agriculture, and other natural climate solutions [12,13] . In the case of agricultural production, this can be ARTICLE seen as providing carbon inputs to offset carbon losses, and to maintain healthy soils and resilient ecosystem function [14] . ...
... A better understanding of the potential mitigation benefits of various agroforestry and tree-based systems has become an essential component of international land sector mitigation efforts [27,53−55] and national carbon accounting [54−56] to meet nationally determined contributions (NDCs), as the need for transformative change in agricultural systems becomes more apparent, urgent, and generally recognized [12,13,31,33,34] . The benefits of agroforestry and increased tree cover on agricultural land, especially in terms of adaptation and resilience, both biophysically and socio-economically, are well described [29,57−60] . ...
Agroforestry has many benefits suited to mountain agricultural systems. This paper seeks to understand and quantify the mitigation potential of multifunctional agroforestry systems, and the potential for increased tree cover in mountains. The potential of agroforestry approaches for protecting irrecoverable carbon in mountains providing alternative, sustainable, and biodiversity-friendly livelihood options for local mountain communities is explored. A substantial portion (29%) of global 'irrecoverable carbon' is found in mountains, representing irreplaceable ecosystems, biodiversity, and globally significant ecosystem services, under unprecedented environmental and demographic pressures, and rapidly changing climatic conditions. This 'premium' mountain carbon supports high levels of biodiversity, including many of the last remaining large mammal species on the planet. Increasing tree cover within agricultural landscapes in mountains can provide sustainable, biodiversity-friendly development options that support environmental and biodiversity conservation. Estimates of existing and decadal change of above- and below-ground biomass on agricultural land within mountainous regions are modeled based up IPCC Tier 1 estimates. Two scenarios are evaluated to estimate carbon sequestration potential of increasing tree cover on agricultural land: 1) incremental change and 2) a systemic change to agroforestry. Estimates of above- and below ground biomass carbon were combined with the tree cover analysis to estimate the change in biomass. Global increases (0.5−0.7 PgC for incremental change; 1.1−2.7 PgC for systematic change) highlight the mitigation potential within mountain agricultural systems. A 10% increase in tree cover on all agricultural land within mountain regions is estimated to sequester 3 PgC.
... She was convinced that there must be something lacking in the foods of the day that was not lacking in the foods of the nation's more robust forefathers (Balfour, 1943: 35). Her view was shared by the British agronomist Sir Albert Howard (1873Howard ( -1947, her co-founder in the Soil Association, who stated that perfectly healthy soils are the basis for health on earth and that undernourishment of the soil is at the root of all problems (Howard, 1947: 12). ...
... There is a spiritual world hidden in nature. Anthroposophy A. Howard, 1873-1947E. Balfour, 1899-1990 Inorganic fertilizers speed up humus breakdown in soil ...
This paper reviews the original reasons of the organic farming movement for excluding mineral (inorganic) fertilizers. In this paper, their theories and decision criteria for excluding use of inorganic fertilizers in crop production were revisited. Original reasons for banning inorganic fertilizers were subjected to scientific scrutiny, which was not possible when they were formulated 50–100 years ago due to limited knowledge of the soil-crop system. The original reasons were as follows: Rudolf Steiner, the founder of biodynamic farming, played down the physical role of plant nutrients and pointed out “flow of forces” as being most important for soils and crops. Eve Balfour and Albert Howard, founders of the Soil Association in England, claimed that inorganic fertilizer increases the breakdown of humus in soil, leading to a decline in soil fertility. Hans-Peter Rusch, the founder of biological organic farming, considered inorganic fertilizers to be imbalanced products not matching crop composition and not in synchrony with crop demand. When testing these historical statements as scientific hypotheses, older and modern scientific literature was used for validation. Steiner’s belief about the “flow of forces” has not be verified using current methodologies. The claim by Balfour and Howard that inorganic fertilizers accelerate soil organic matter decomposition is not substantiated by data from long-term field experiments on carbon and nitrogen cycling in soil-plant systems. The statement by Rusch that inorganic fertilizers supply crops inappropriately is difficult to uphold, as the composition, time, and rate of application and the placement of fertilizer in soil or on foliage can be fully adapted to crop requirements. In light of accumulated scientific evidence, the original arguments lack validity. The decision to ban inorganic fertilizers in organic farming is inconsistent with our current scientific understanding. Scientific stringency requires principles found to be erroneous to be abandoned.
... An Agricultural Testament influenced the Soil Society work in England as well as the writing of J. I. Rodale in the United States. Subsequent works by Howard elucidated further the connections between soil and health and clarified the methods to be used in an agriculture based on biological struc ture rather than on the use of synthetic chemical inputs (Howard, 1945(Howard, , 1946(Howard, , 1947. ...
... Bromfield felt strongly that the sensitivity, skill, and dedication required of a good farmer meant that "not everybody can farm" (1950). Several other authors, including Pfeiffer (1947), Cocannouer (1950Cocannouer ( , 1954Cocannouer ( , 1958, Hainsworth (1954), Howard (1947), and Widkenden (1949), continued through 1956 to articulate the increas ing environmental harm and resource degradation brought about by "modern" farming methods. They repeatedly advocated the holistic approach to agriculture. ...
... In terms of soil health, organic farming aims to build soil fertility through the use of organic amendments like compost and manure, while eliminating synthetic fertilizers and pesticides that harm soil structure and biodiversity [83]. RA, NBS, agroecology, and permaculture focus on regenerative practices such as no-till farming, cover cropping, perennial polycultures, and rotational grazing to enhance soil organic matter, improve soil structure, and prevent erosion. ...
This paper reviews, compares, and critically evaluates two broad groups of sustainable agriculture models: “sustainable agriculture” and “sustainable agrifood systems”. The “sustainable agriculture” models—comprising organic farming, regenerative agriculture, climate-smart agriculture, carbon-capture agriculture, and nature-based solutions—focus primarily on improving ecological sustainability through farm-level practices. These models emphasize reducing external, industrial inputs, enhancing biodiversity, and promoting climate resilience, relying on technological and market-based solutions to address environmental concerns. On the other hand, the “sustainable agrifood systems” models—agroecology, alternative food networks, and permaculture—offer more ambitious visions of systemic transformation. These approaches not only seek to implement environmentally sound practices but also aim to reconfigure the broader food system by challenging corporate power, promoting local governance, fostering food sovereignty, and prioritizing social justice. Grounded in grassroots movements, these models emphasize social justice and economic viability in addition to ecological sustainability. This paper’s contribution lies in its comparative analysis of the wide array of sustainable alternatives, highlighting both their strengths and limitations. Adopting an agrarian political economy perspective, it critiques the former camp for limited engagement with structural issues inherent in capitalist agriculture and the latter camp for underplaying the importance of industrial agriculture for national development in the Global South.
... This perspective of distance between the rational mind (subject) and the material world (object) emerged with Rene Descartes and Francis Bacon and led to a view of nature as a combination of mechanisms that can be understood, manipulated and dominated for the benefit of humans (Kirschenmann, 2009). A way of soil care in which humans are detached from soil has historically paved the way for an 'NPK mentality' (Howard (2006), p. 72) in which soils are managed for the highest agricultural productivity, in part due to food security challenges (Yaalon, 2000). The end of such approaches is increasingly being recognized, as energy and some mined fertilizers are finite (Kirschenmann, 2009). ...
The paradigm of modernity is associated with human detachment from soil as the agricultural and affective foundation of modern societies. The focus on soil as a resource has created increasingly exhausted landscapes. Soil science is well placed to (re)build the urgently needed connection between humans and nature by generating evidence for soil functioning and, perhaps most importantly, by establishing linkages with diverse types of soil knowledge and integrating them in collaborative solutions. Such transdisciplinary solutions can be achieved by transforming current ways of doing soil science, which begin with soil scientists. Anchored in feminist and critical thinking, we used the ‘reflecting and doing’ framework (Lopez et al., 2023) to demonstrate how reflexivity can help soil science to become a transformative space. By partially dissolving the mind–heart and human–soil dualisms, we can foster a way of generating soil knowledge that emerges from the relations within and beyond the human Self. Such an approach is relatively new in academic soil science, which relies heavily on the scientific method as a detached form of knowing that privileges mind over body, reason over emotion, culture over nature and production over reproduction. We argue that this journey starts with (re)positioning ourselves as soil scientists in relation to our research and advance a Transformative Soil Science that recognizes soil knowledge as situated and embodied and that identifies soil as the main ally for a sustainable world.
... Thus, in pursuit of resource rehabilitation, different potent agronomic activities are emerging. Important among them are natural farming, carbon farming, mixed farming, permaculture, integrated farming systems, climate-smart agriculture, circular agriculture, biodynamic agriculture, organic agriculture, conservation agriculture, and agroforestry (Mollison, 1988;Devendra and Thomas, 2002;Udawatta et al., 2002;Howard, 2006;Hobbs et al., 2008;Fukuoka, 2009;Gill et al., 2009;Turinek et al., 2009;Lipper et al., 2014;Toensmeier, 2016;Toopet al., 2017;Paul et al., 2019). ...
... This study revealed that, since the appearance of the agroindustrial model at the beginning of the 20th century, there has been resistance and alerts due to the foreseeable environmental, social, and economic effects that it would generate, as well as the search for alternatives that have become the foundations of agroecology. Albert Howard, Masanobu Fukuoka, and Rudolf Steiner are 3 key authors who developed organic agriculture, natural farming, and biodynamics, respectively and published their main work on "sustainable agriculture" before agroecology appeared as a theoretical and social movement (Steiner, 1924;Howard, 1947;Fukuoka, 1978). ...
During the last 2 decades, several studies have analyzed the theoretical and practical development of agroecology in different countries. In each country, the transition has followed different paths and paces. Using a detailed review of myriad sources, this article describes the evolution of agroecology in Mexico from 1920 to date. Our analysis was based on a set of indicators such as research teams, courses and degrees, publications, conferences, professional associations and unions, policies and laws, agricultural production, as well as social movements and resistances. We identified 5 main stages: a precursor stage (1920–1960), a foundational stage (1960–1980), an institutionalization stage (1980–2000), a deployment stage (2000–2018), and a scaling-up stage (2018–to date). The article discusses the importance of the role played by the current government in deploying and multiplying agroecological practices throughout the country. Given a history of over 7,000 years of agricultural practices, and a persistent tradition of small-scale farmer resistance movements that reached a peak during the agrarian revolution (1910–1917), in addition to the participation of small-scale producers in agroecologically oriented programs promoted by the current administration, the search for sustainable food systems in Mexico seems promising.
... The principles of organic farming have a strong focus on soil fertility and include the "Law of Return" (Howard 2011), which refers to the internal cycling of nutrients via base fertilizers like farmyard manure or compost as a major pillar of soil fertility management. Furthermore, nutrients should be supplied to the soil by using legumes for biological N 2 fixation (BNF) in addition to the maintenance and improvement of soil organic matter through appropriate tillage and cultivation practices (IFOAM 2019). ...
Fertilizer management in stockless organic vegetable production is strongly affected by external nutrient purchases due to the high nitrogen (N) and potassium (K) requirements of vegetables. However, the database on nutrient flows and budgets in organic vegetable farming in Europe is very limited. Therefore, a survey based on semi-structured interviews was carried out comprising 12 organic horticultural farms in Germany. The results show that three different main fertilizer categories are used as inputs in different ratios by the inventoried farms: (1) base fertilizers (e.g., composts, solid farmyard manures), (2) commercial organic N fertilizers (e.g., keratins or plant products from food production or fermentation processes), and (3) commercial mineral fertilizers (e.g., potassium sulfate), all of which are approved for organic production. Ninety percent of the total nutrient inputs to the farms came from these fertilizers and biological N2 fixation, with the remaining 10% coming from other inputs, such as seeds or growing media. The estimated yearly average total farm budgets were nearly balanced across all farms with moderate surpluses (67.5 kg N ha⁻¹, 2.06 kg P ha⁻¹, and 0.26 kg K ha⁻¹). However, large imbalances were found for most of the individual farms. These imbalances indicate the risk of nutrient accumulation or nutrient depletion in the soil, depending on the fertilization strategy and productivity of the farm. More specifically, increasing N share from base fertilizers led to increased P and K budgets, while strategies based on the use of large amounts of keratins led to the opposite—K and P depletion. We concluded that balanced nutrient management in organic vegetable production systems requires a thorough calculation and should combine the use of base fertilizers, commercial fertilizers with low P content, and increased N supply via BNF.
... Few microbiome inoculants have empirical benefits, indicating participant beliefs were consistent with prior research (Schonbeck, Jerkins and Lowell, 2019). Organic agriculture historically promoted microbiome research, such as studies by Sir Albert Howard, Rudolf Steiner, and Eve Balfour (Balfour, 1949;Koepf, Pettersson and Schaumann, 1990;Howard, 2006). It remains unclear whether our participants' inoculant beliefs are derived from historical literature, although ≈70% use books as information sources. ...
Certified organic farming is a suite of regulated practices that can support social, economic, and ecological sustainability in agriculture. Despite the standardization and regulation of certifying bodies, practices adopted by organic farmers vary with potential heterogeneous effects on environmental outcomes. While it is accepted that beliefs can enable or constrain the adoption of farming practices, it remains unclear if variation in organic farmer beliefs mediates observed heterogeneity in practices and the ecology of farms. Communities of soil microorganisms that induce plant resistance and regulate insect herbivores offer a lens to explore the relationship between beliefs and practice adoption. Variation in insect herbivores across organic farms is common but none have studied the role of farmer beliefs in regulating pests through the soil microbiome. Herein, we hypothesized that variation in adoption of microbiome-supportive practices by organic farmers is driven by heterogeneity in their microbiome beliefs. We also investigate the importance of demographic variables and farm characteristics, compared to farmer beliefs, for adoption of practices that support the microbiome. To test our hypothesis, we surveyed the microbiome beliefs, farming practices, and motivations of 85 organic farmers in New York State, USA. We used affinity propagation to cluster farmers by their beliefs, and statistical models to evaluate variation in farming practice adoption and farmer motivations. Our survey received a 30.5% response rate, most organic farmers (≈96%) believed the soil microbiome was important for supporting plant defenses and reducing pests, and <16% believed their farming practices were unimportant for promoting beneficial microbiomes. Seven clusters of farmers were identified that varied in their microbiome beliefs. Among the clusters ≈42% of farmers believed on-farm management and external factors (e.g., climate change) were important for promoting the microbiome. These farmers used fewer pesticides and synthetic mulches, more pre-planting practices (e.g., solarization), and were more motivated to adopt new practices to support the microbiome than their peers. The most important factors motivating adoption were reductions in pests, increased yields, and biodiversity benefits. Beliefs, demographics, and farm characteristics (e.g., time in organic management) were correlated with similar suites of farming practices, but only beliefs predicted farmer motivations. Our study suggests beliefs are key to understanding farmer motivations and promoting organic farming system sustainability via the pest-suppressive microbiome. More broadly, we suggest the need for socio-ecological approaches that account for farmer beliefs when studying the adoption of conservation practices in agroecosystems.
... Наукове обґрунтування переваг органічного землеробства над класичним подано у наукових працях А. Говарда, де до прикладу у книзі "Ґрунт та здоров'я. Дослідження органічного сільського господарстваˮ ним описано негативний вплив хімічних засобів та антибіотиків на якість і екологічність вирощуваних сільськогосподарських культур і продуктів тваринного походження [22]. ...
У статті окреслено засади формування системи біодинамічного аграрного господарювання, що зумовлено необхідністю якісного продовольчого забезпечення населення України та її регіонів. Відмічено, що існує потреба в розширенні ринку органічних продуктів, що в свою чергу спонукає до застосування біодинамічних методів аграрного виробництва, тобто біодинамічного землеробства як важливого екологічно чистого напряму господарювання на землі. Закономірним є задіяння екологічно безпечних технологій вирощування сільськогосподарських культур, впровадження точного землеробства, як новаційного метода рільництва з метою поліпшення родючості ґрунтів, забезпечення високої якості вирощеної продукції.Ключові слова: біодинамічне аграрне господарювання, органічне землеробство, якісна продовольча продукція, екологічно безпечні технології, природно-ресурсний потенціал, ринок органічних продуктів
... Agroecological practices on farms and in landscapes aim to restore and enhance ecological health, biodiversity, soil fertility, and access to land through community (re)building. Such practices are based on the understanding that the health of soil is reflected in community, individual, and planetary health (Balfour 1943;Howard 1947;Wall et al. 2015), and that the act of eating is an agricultural act (Berry 1990), shaping bodies and habitats. ...
Agroecology is an alternative paradigm for agriculture and food systems that is simultaneously: (a) the application of ecological principles to food and farming systems that emerge from specific socioecological and cultural contexts in place-based territories; and (b) a social and political process that centers the knowledge and agency of Indigenous peoples and peasants in determining agri-food system policy and practice.
Historically, agroecology is associated with a multifaceted body of transdisciplinary knowledge. The academic literature emphasizes the role of scientists in developing an interdisciplinary agroecology over the past ninety years. However, the practice of agroecology is much older, with deep roots in many Indigenous and peasant societies of Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australia, Europe, and Polynesia. Although these societies never adopted the term “agroecology,” their time-tested practices in growing food and fiber illustrate many principles of modern agroecology.
The transdisciplinary field of research on agroecology examines how agroecology contributes to equitable and sustainable food and fiber production, processing, distribution, and consumption. Agroecology builds on people’s knowledge, Indigenous management systems, and local institutions through “dialogues of knowledges” with social science, natural science, and the humanities. The study of Indigenous and peasant agri-food systems has thus been pivotal for the development of both agroecology and anthropology.
The agroecological perspective is based on a transformative vision of the relationship between people and nature. Economic anthropology has unearthed a wide diversity of systems of economic exchange that are informing work on agroecology, including the vital importance of Indigenous and peasant economies, gift economies, circular economies, subsistence, and economies of care. These are pushing agroecologists to think outside of the box of dominant commodity capitalism. Agroecology is also based on a radical conceptualization of knowledge systems, whereby work on cognitive justice, epistemic justice, Indigeneity, and decoloniality is upending the dominance of Western, scientific, Eurocentric, and patriarchal worldviews as the basis for the future of food and agriculture. Agroecology is also underpinned by radical notions of democracy and new conceptualizations of popular education, transformations in governance, and empowering forms of participation.
While the transformative agenda offered by agroecology is deeply contested by proponents of industrial and corporate food and agriculture, agroecology is increasingly important in academic and policy debates on sustainable food, farming, and land use. Exploring the relationship between agroecology and anthropology is both fruitful and timely because it can help re-root agroecology—which is increasingly at risk of becoming an abstract and devitalized concept—in the fundamentally localized practices and culture of agri-food systems.
... Howard concluded that humus-rich soils are the key for successful organic farming. In his famous book 'An Agricultural Testament', he emphasized that the whole farm is the starting point and basic unit of agricultural research and that much of the disease is due to inadmissible farming methods without proper care of soil (Howard 1947 (Ghosh 1984). Acharya (1949) quantified the cattle manure and town waste produced in India and estimated its composition. ...
Climate, water and soil have been the major determinants of agricultural productivity. These three vital natural resources are eternally related with one another and also with crop, animal and human health. Climate determines the availability of water and formation as well as health of soil. Climatic processes, on the other side, are also influenced by water bodies and soil. Since the beginning of the civilization, when the hunting and food gathering humans started to settle down initiating domestication of animals and growing crops, these natural resources shaped the human activities and dictated the path of the progress of the civilization. The importance of these resources was well known to the Indians since the Vedic and Epic ages. Kautilya's Arthasastra discussed meteorological aspects of agriculture, different rain-bearing clouds and measurement of rainfall using a fixed dimension vessel as a rain gauge. Poet Kalidasa mentioned the dates of onset of monsoon and its path over central India in his famous epic Meghdoot. Manu, of the fame of "Manusmriti", recognized the Sun as the source of energy for all weather systems. Varāhamihira's Brihat Samhita discussed planetary movements, eclipses, rainfall and clouds. Scientific study of climate, however, started in the 17 th century after the inventions of instruments for accurate measurements of climatic controls. In 1793, first meteorological unit, one of the oldest stations of the world, started in Madras by J. Goldingham. With several other developments in climatology, the climatological charts of India and neighbourhood was published by India Meteorology Department (IMD) for meteorologists and Airmen in 1946. As agriculture grew, the use of water available in rivers, lakes and underground reservoirs through the water withdrawal structures were developed. The Kings, Emperors and Rulers constructed withdrawal and conveyance structures to carry water to the fields and domestic use.
... Any weakness or defect in the health of any earlier link in the chain is carried on to the next succeeding links, until it reaches the last, mainly, man." (Howard, 1947). Although our understanding is yet at its infancy, future research on microbiome cycling and nutrient cycling (Altieri and Nicholls, 2003;Datnoff et al., 2007) may hold the key to better understanding the chains connecting healthy soils to plants, animals, humans, and ecosystems. ...
Many soil health assessment methods are being developed. However, they often lack assessment of soil-borne diseases. To better address management strategies for soil-borne disease and overall soil and plant health, the concept of Integrated Soil Health Management (ISHM) is explored. Applying the concept of Integrated Pest Management and an agroecological transdisciplinary approach, ISHM offers a framework under which a structure for developing and implementing biointensive soil health management strategies for a particular agroecosystem is defined. As a case study, a history of soil-borne disease management in California strawberries is reviewed and contrasted with a history of arthropod pest management to illustrate challenges associated with soil-borne disease management and the future directions of soil health research and soil-borne disease management. ISHM system consists of comprehensive soil health diagnostics, farmers' location-specific knowledge and adaptability, a suite of soil health management practices, and decision support tools. As we better understand plant-soil-microorganism interactions, including the mechanisms of soil suppressiveness, a range of diagnostic methodologies and indicators and their action thresholds may be developed. These knowledge-intensive and location-specific management systems require transdisciplinary approaches and social learning to be co-developed with stakeholders. The ISHM framework supports research into the broader implications of soil health such as the “One health” concept, which connects soil health to the health of plants, animals, humans, and ecosystems and research on microbiome and nutrient cycling that may better explain these interdependencies.
... Nearly a century ago, Sir Albert Howard wrote a seminal book on the relationship between soils and human health (Howard 2006). Based on his experience in the British colonial government in India, Howard developed the opinion that industrial agriculture would inevitably lead to soil degradation and widespread impacts on human health. ...
... Given the negative impacts of industrial-productivist agriculture, there is an urgent need to explore alternative agricultural approaches that can support transformations (Van der Ploeg 2020; Bene 2020). Many alternatives have been documented, such as agroecology (Gliessman 1990(Gliessman , 2001(Gliessman , 2007Altieri 1995;Iles 2020;Conway 1985Conway , 1987, permaculture (Mollison 1988;Holmgren 2007), carbon farming (Baumber et al. 2019(Baumber et al. , 2020Toensmeier 2016;Ridinger 2016), natural farming (Fukuoka 1978), keyline farming (Yeomans 1993), organic agriculture (Howard 2013(Howard , 1940Leu 2020), biodynamic agriculture (Steiner 1993), Indigenous land stewardship (Gammage 2011;Pascoe 2014;Romero-Briones et al. 2020), climate smart agriculture (Codur and Watson 2018) and holistic management (Savory andButterfield 2016, 1999;Savory 1988;Gosnell et al. 2020b) or adaptive management (Hodbod et al. 2016;Teague and Barnes 2017;Teague and Kreuter 2020). These alternatives have developed their own discourses, communities of practice and underlying philosophies that challenge extractive food systems. ...
Agriculture occupies 38% of the planet's terrestrial surface, using 70% of freshwater resources. Its modern practice is dominated by an industrial-productivist discourse, which has contributed to the simplification and degradation of human and ecological systems. As such, agricultural transformation is essential for creating more sustainable food systems. This paper focuses on discursive change. A prominent discursive alternative to industrial-productivist agriculture is regenerative agriculture. Regenerative discourses are emergent, radically evolving and diverse. It is unclear whether they have the potential to generate the changes required to shift industrial-productivist agriculture. This paper presents a literature-based discourse analysis to illustrate key thematic characteristics of regenerative agricultural discourses. The analysis finds that such discourses: situate agricultural work within nested, complex living systems; position farms as relational, characterised by co-evolution between humans and other landscape biota; perceive the innate potential of living systems as place-sourced; maintain a transformative openness to alternative thinking and practice; believe that multiple regenerative cultures are necessary for deeply regenerative agriculture; and depart from industrialism to varying degrees. The paper concludes by reviewing three transformative opportunities for regenerative discourses-discourse coalitions, translocal organising and collective learning.
Supplementary information:
The online version supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10460-021-10276-0.
... Whenever termites forage over the ground, they must maintain their relationship to the soil so that workers and soldiers can return and replenish their body moisture regularly, the relationship of the soil to the termites formed by the mud tubes (Howard, 2006;Turbe et al., 2010;Pervez, 2018). If the pipe is damaged, the worker termites will be compelling reconstructed. ...
Eusocial insects have a diverse mechanism of reproduction to know the termite genealogy, and we examined the Reticulitermes aculabialis breeding mechanism. This well-known species was reared in an artificial environment under darkness at Northwest University, Xian, China, from May 2018 to June 2019. After the inaugural colonies foundation, imagoes started egg-laying during 30-40 days. The hatching ratio increased gradually during the time. The femal+male (FM) worker reproductive (ergatoids) colonies were reported significantly (p<0.005) in egg-laying and chambers making than primary reproductive (imagoes). The morphological measurement shows that the swarmer alates were significantly (p<0.005) extended along with wings, mean live weight of the queen was significantly heavier (p<0.005) than workers but not statistically different mature reproductive queen. The sex ratio of workers was found significantly dominant (p<0.005) among individuals in the colony and busy to find food sources, caring for young termites and eggs, constructing galleries, and helping the soldiers to defend the colony from predators, increases the efficiency of the effectiveness, protection from pathogens and parasites.
... The importance of the soil-human health nexus has also been recognized ever since the dawn of civilization (Howard 1947;Magdoff 2001;Sherwood and Uphoff 2000;Brevik 2014;Brevik and Sauer 2015;Pepper 2013;Oliver and Gregory 2015;Wall et al. 2015;Kemper and Lal 2017;Lehmann et al. 2020). Viewing soil as a living ecosystem transforms the way we think about soil and how to improve and manage it to advance our agricultural production without degrading environmental quality. ...
... The importance of the soil-human health nexus has also been recognized ever since the dawn of civilization (Howard 1947;Magdoff 2001;Sherwood and Uphoff 2000;Brevik 2014;Brevik and Sauer 2015;Pepper 2013;Oliver and Gregory 2015;Wall et al. 2015;Kemper and Lal 2017;Lehmann et al. 2020). Viewing soil as a living ecosystem transforms the way we think about soil and how to improve and manage it to advance our agricultural production without degrading environmental quality. ...
... The complexity of the soil concept-including humanistic and inclusionary meanings, as well as chauvinistic and exclusionary ("blood and soil") meanings-is inherent to the philosophy of organic farming. The relationships between soil and social health received special political attention early on, with the writings of botanist Albert Howard (1947), who pointed to connections between soil fertility and national resilience. Thus, the interlacing of organic agriculture and parochialism (religiosity and right-wing nationalism) is not new, and certainly not unique to the Israeli/Palestinian case. ...
In settler colonial settings, agriculture is a means of reclaiming territorial sovereignty and indigenous identity. Turning attention to the Jewish settlers in the West Bank and their multiple uses and abuses of organic farming, this article explores epistemic and political spatial operations on the colonial frontier. Applying a relational conceptualization of three spatial modalities—soil, territory, and land—we explore the ways in which these modalities serve as political apparatuses: Soil designates the romantic perception of cultivable space, territory is concerned with borders and political sovereignty, and land is seen as a space of economic value and as a means of production. While agriculture is a well-known instrument of expansion and dispossession, organic farming contributes to the colonial operation by binding together affective attachment to the place, and new economic singularity in relation to environmental and ethical claims. We argue that organic farming practices converge claims for local authenticity, spatial appropriation, and high economic values that are embedded in what we term the colonial quality turn. Ultimately, organic farming in the West Bank normalizes the inherent violence of the colonial project and strengthens the settlers’ claim for political privilege.
... L'apport de matière organique végétale est favorablement complété par un apport de matières organiques animales sous forme de fumier par exemple. Toutes ces pratiques, qui finalement visent à retourner à la terre une grande partie de la biomasse produite, pourraient se résumer dans ce que Sir Albert Howard, un des pionniers de l'agriculture biologique, appelait la « Loi du Retour » (Howard 1947). ...
Fruit de nombreuses années de recherches et d'actions, ce manuel capitalise les connaissances des paysannes et paysans des coopératives appuvées par le Secaar au Togo et au Bénin.
Leur succès est un appel à partager ce savoir et à le rendre accessible au plus grand nombre. Au total 15 pratiques sont analysées, expliquées et illustrées.
... Soil quality and soil health, have been used frequently and interchangeably within the scientific literature. Initially, soil health was considered in relation to organic agriculture (Howard, 1947), but since the early 1990s and the seminal work by Doran and Zeiss (2000), soil health has been thought of as 'the continued capacity of a soil to function as a vital living system'. Soil health is broader, covering multiple soil functions with greater emphasis on the whole soil ecosystem, as a changing interlinked network. ...
This chapter provides examples of the impact of soil fauna on soil health within different ecosystems and how the soil habitat changes in relation to this biodiversity. It focuses specifically on mesofauna in agriculture, grasslands, woodlands and as bioindicators, before concluding with an overview of how the development of mesofauna as bioindicators is important in establishing a healthy soil.
... FAO'nun (Birleşmiş Milletler Gıda ve Tarım Örgütü) (2020) dünya toprak yılı için yaptığı yayında da toprağın canlı ve düşündüğümüzden çok daha fazla fonksiyonu olduğu belirtilmiştir. Toprak, sağlıklı gıdanın kaynağıdır (Brevik, 2010;Howard, 2006). Bitkilere olduğu gibi tüm diğer canlılara ev sahipliği yapar (Karaca ve Turgay, 2012). ...
Özet: Toprak, her gün üzerine bastığımız, barınma, besin, temiz su gibi temel ihtiyaçlarımızı sağlamanın yanında hayatımızda var olan her nesnenin bir şekilde ihtiyaç duyduğu doğal varlıktır. Toprak, fen bilimleri, coğrafya, sanat, matematik, yaşam becerileri, mühendislik ve edebiyat alanlarının her biri ile ilişkilendirilebilecek disiplinlerarası bir kavramdır. Öğretim programları incelendiğinde farklı disiplinlerde toprak konusunda kazanımlar olduğu görülse de ayrıca toprak ile ilgili etkinliklerin yer almadığı göze çarpmaktadır. Bu çalışma Cornell'in öğrenme akışı ders tasarımına uygun olarak dört basamaklı tasarlanan etkinlikleri içermektedir. Etkinlikte 7. sınıf öğrencileri ile toprak, kağıt, kalem, küp şeklinde karton kutular kullanılarak küçük grup çalışmaları yapılmıştır. Hazırlanan etkinlikler ortaokul ve lise öğrencileri, öğretmen adayları ve öğretmenler olmak üzere farklı gruplara uygulanabilir. Etkinlik sonunda toprak farkındalığının artması, toprak konusunda merak uyandırılması beklenmektedir. Anahtar Kelimeler: Toprak, öğrenme akışı ders tasarımı, çevre eğitimi Giriş Toprak canlılar için vazgeçilmez bir varlıktır. Her varlık toprak ile etkileşimde bulunur. Çoğu insan toprağı cansız olarak düşünmektedir. Ancak toprak, içerdiği mikroorganizmalar sayesinde karmaşık yapıya sahip bir ekosistemdir ve sağlıklı olması için, mikroorganizmalara sahip olması, hava ve su ile ilişkisini kurması gerekmektedir. Bu açıdan bakıldığında bilim insanları toprağın Güngör Cabbar, B. (2020). Bildiğin toprak! Öğrenme akışı ders tasarımı ile toprağa farklı disiplinlerden bakış. STEM Eğitimi Dergisi, 1(1), 47-65.
... Over the past 3 decades, efforts to address critical soil issues and make decision-makers aware of their societal importance have very often involved the concept of 'soil quality', and in the last decade, increasingly that of 'soil health'. This latter term arguably draws much of its appeal from a close connection between soils and animal or human health (e.g., Oliver & Gregory, 2015), which various authors, like Howard (1945) and Voisin (1959), identified a long time ago. While the use of these terms has become steadily more common outside the scientific community, soil scientists have consistently struggled in practice with their definition and quantitative assessment. ...
Lehmann et al. (2020) recently published an article in which they propose a review of the very topical notion of soil health and of its practical significance for soil management. Unfortunately, the journal in which this review appeared does not accept comments or letters to the editor, thereby depriving the scientific community of the opportunity to debate in a timely manner some of the startling conclusions the authors reached, which arguably run the risk of encouraging researchers to venture down a very slippery slope. A commentary on Lehmann et al. (2020) is offered here, in the hope that it will lead to a constructive discussion about some of the limitations of the concept of soil health, and about how to proceed to come up with an alternative approach that would be more directly useful in terms of soil management.
... In the early 20th century, a prominent figure of what is now called organic agriculture, Sir Albert Howard, erroneously turned to mycorrhizal fungi when seeking to explain why compost is better for plant health than chemical fertilizers (Gieryn, 1999). In 1946, commenting on the predominant trend in agriculture, Howard wrote of a "failure to realize that the problems of the farm and garden are biological rather than chemical" (Howard, 2006;p. XXV). ...
Across industrial societies, midsize farms are in decline. A future of sustainable agriculture will require more than industrial and cottage farmers. We show that emergent mycorrhizal science is well‐suited to support applications for an “agriculture of the middle,” and note two obstacles to the development of more integrated mycorrhizal technologies: an overreliance on commercial inoculants (industrial agriculture) and a tendency to treat soil biology as a black box (cottage agriculture). In this paper, we aim to provoke conversation among policy makers, research funders, and corporate executives on the development of mycorrhizal technologies for an agriculture of the middle.
... In organic agriculture practice proper soil health management can be maintained through seasonal soil analysis and natural nutrient balancing. [110] There is an another aspect of organic farming researched by various researchers stating that the soils with heavy metals are not feasible for organic agricultural practices as chemical nutrient management strategies are needed to be supplemented. [111,112] Some management techniques are discussed in this paper. ...
Organic farming helps to improve the health of agro-ecosystem by its holistic approach using on-farm agronomic, biological and mechanical methods in exclusion of all synthetic off-farm inputs. Although the organic farming is eco-friendly, question arises about possibility to adopt the organic farming for the large scale and its impacts on maintaining the productivity of land to meet the food security challenges from the ever-increasing population of the world. But at the same time, consumer's behaviour and consciousness toward the safe and healthy food enforced the thinking of farmers toward the organic farming which is more lucrative due to high market demand and value of organic produce. This paper mainly addresses about the present status and future scope of organic farming especially in North eastern region of India, State of Sikkim, Indian and Global scenario and to investigate the major external and internal factors that influence the whole organic system including production and marketing of organic commodity.
... The father of cell biology, Rudolf Virchow, also recognized the relationship between human and animal health and passed it along to his student, Sir William Osler, who brought the concept to North America. Sir Albert Howard, President of the National Academy of Sciences in India, said in the early 20th century, "Health of soil, plants, animal, and people is one and indivisible" (Howard 1943(Howard , 1945. The concept of "One Health" has continued into the 21st century by both veterinarians and physicians who recognized that many animal illnesses have much to teach physicians about human health. ...
... Regarding crop residue Smil (1999), describes how no nation keeps comprehensive statistics on its production and fate. He also describes how a large proportion of this phytomass does not return fertility to the soil due to combustion on-farm, or export from the agroecosystem as feed or fuel, breaking the 'law of return' of organic agriculture (Howard 2006)-a loss that goes unrecorded. Numerous studies provide evidence that inorganic fertilisers are increasingly replacing and/or supplementing recycled biomass for fertilisation at the regional level. ...
The global agriculture, aquaculture, fishing and forestry (AAFF) energy system is subject to three unsustainable trends: (1) the approaching biophysical limits of AAFF; (2) the role of AAFF as a driver of environmental degradation; and (3) the long-term declining energy efficiency of AAFF due to growing dependence on fossil fuels. In response, we conduct a net energy analysis for the period 1971-2017 and review existing studies to investigate the global AAFF energy system and its vulnerability to the three unsustainable trends from an energetic perspective. We estimate the global AAFF system represents 27.9% of societies energy supply in 2017, with food energy representing 20.8% of societies total energy supply. We find that the net energy-return-on-investment (net EROI) of global AAFF increased from 2.87:1 in 1971 to 4.05:1 in 2017. We suggest that rising net EROI values are being fuelled in part by 'depleting natures accumulated energy stocks'. We also find that the net energy balance of AAFF increased by 130% in this period, with at the same time a decrease in both the proportion of rural residents and also the proportion of the total population working in AAFF-which decreased from 19.8 to 10.3%. However, this comes at the cost of growing fossil fuel dependency which increased from 43.6 to 62.2%. Given the increasing probability of near-term fossil fuel scarcity, the growing impacts of climate change and environmental degradation, and the approaching biophysical limits of global AAFF, 'Odum's hoax' is likely soon to be revealed.
... The extreme damages, which these artifacts bring to the environment and natural ecosystems along with undeniable effects on consumers' health, make the pesticide as one of the biggest barriers to sustainable agriculture and human and environmental health. This causes high concern among policymakers and consumers about the excessive use of these materials in agricultural production (Howard and Berry 2008;Haghjou et al. 2013). ...
Chemical pesticides are among the most important barriers to sustainability in agriculture. Their numerous disadvantages for the environment and living organisms, as well as the food cycle, pushed developed societies to eliminate or reduce pesticides application. Meanwhile, consumers, due to the health problems, have changed their approach to safe and pesticide-free food products. However, in developing countries such as Iran, the lack of knowledge and awareness of safer food products is one of the main reasons for the lack of organized market for such products. In this study, which was conducted in 2010 among 394 consumers from Marand City (Iran), we tried to examine consumers’ awareness of pesticide-free fruits and vegetables and its determinants using ordered probit model. Data were collected through the field study and the questionnaire. According to the results, only 20% of the respondents have appropriate information about the features of pesticide-free fruits and vegetables, and about 24% have low information or lack of awareness. Estimation results show that factors such as educational level, positive environmental tendencies and adherence to healthy lifestyle index among individuals, as well as having children under the age of ten or people with specific diseases in the household have a positive and significant impact on awareness of pesticide-free fruits and vegetables. In this context, female respondents’ awareness was more than males. In this respect, appropriate advertising, conducting training courses for all levels of education, raising community awareness of sustainability issues and safer products besides environmental and a healthy lifestyle issues are suggested.
... That SOM content is among some key indicators of soil quality, and this has been recognized for centuries (Allison, 1973;Darwin, 1840;Howard, 1943Howard, , 1945Hyams, 1952;Jenny, 1941;Rodale, 1945). Most indicators of soil health, defined as "the capacity of the soil to function as a vital living ecosystem that supports plants, animals, and humans (USDA-NRCS, 2019)," are based on the quantity and quality of SOM content (Gardi, Tomaselli, Parisi, Petraglia, & Santini, 2002;Haney, Haney, Smith, Harmel, & White, 2018;Hurisso et al., 2018;Lehman et al., 2015;Moebius-Clune et al., 2016;Morrow, Huggins, Carpenter-Boggs, & Reganold, 2016;Ndiaye, Sandeno, McGrath, & Dick, 2000;Schindelbeck et al., 2016Schindelbeck et al., , 2017van Es & Karlen, 2019;Zobeck, Halvorson, Wienhold, Acosta-Martinez, & Karlen, 2008. ...
The current and projected anthropogenic global warming and the attendant increase in the severity and extent of soil degradation may exacerbate the intensity and duration of drought occurrence in agroecosystems. Restoration of the soil organic matter (SOM) content of degraded/depleted soils can increase soil water retention (SWR) more at field capacity (FC) than that at the permanent wilting point (PWP), and thus increase the plant available water capacity (PAWC). The magnitude of increase in PAWC may depend on soil texture and the initial SOM content. Thus, restoration of the SOM content of degraded/depleted soils can make them as well as agroecosystems climate‐resilient. Management practices which enhance soil health by restoring SOM content include conservation agriculture, cover cropping, residue mulching, and complex farming systems involving integration of crops with trees and livestock. Such technologies must be fine‐tuned under site‐specific conditions. Additional research is needed to establish the cause‐effect relationship between increase in SOM content and PAWC and the ameliorative effect on drought‐resilience for diverse crops and cropping systems.
... It was the first scientific, side-by-side comparison of organic and conventional farming. P 1940 -Sir Albert Howard's book, "An Agricultural Testament", was influential in promoting organic techniques, and his 1947 book "The Soil and Health, A Study of Organic Agriculture" adopted Northbourne's terminology and was the first book to include "organic" agriculture or farming in its title (Howard, 1947). P 1940 -In Japan, Masanobu Fukuoka, a microbiologist working in soil science and plant pathology, begun to doubt the modern agricultural movement. ...
Till 15th century agriculture was the main source of income and given top priority all over the world and in India it was considered as the sacred profession due to lifeline of society. However, the story of agriculture started to change with the advent of industrial development in Europe and later on other parts of the world that changed the attitude towards agriculture production that the production is possible with the use of synthetic chemicals and seeds rather with the harmony of nature. The system was very well fitted in the industrialization process as so many chemicals have been produced and marketed. Therefore, it was given a good name green revolution in tune of industrial revolution. The system given miraculous results for a short time till the buffer capacity of soil and ecosystem as a whole exhausted in later part of twentieth century. Also, the industry become the main source of income therefore, agriculture was started to get lesser attention. The declining trend in productivity of soil and agriculture system as a whole in second half of 20th century as results of this approach is visible around the globe. Now it is being realized all over the world to revisit the agriculture production system that was based on harmony with nature and prevailed for millenniums and fed the world without any negative consequences. This nature friendly system was studied by some of the agriculturist in middle of twentieth century and given the name “Organic farming”. Rather than describing chronology that is monotonous and to make a logical analysis of the past the history of this system can be divided into three phases namely Revisit, Recognise and Reshape the present form of organic farming. If the analysis shows that the system in past was sustainable and can be make more efficient with modern understanding of eco-friendly science than there should not be hesitation in ‘return to right’ path.
Subject. The article is devoted to organic farming. Objectives. The study aims to analyze organic agriculture as a factor of regional development in the Russian Federation, explore the strategy of resource-innovative growth, positions of the development axes theory, growth points, grassroots innovations, and a cluster approach to the analysis of organic agriculture in the region of location. Methods. The study employs general scientific research methods. Results. Despite the great potential for the development of organic agriculture in the Russian Federation and the possibility of its formation into a point of growth of the region, there is no indicator system enabling to analyze the potential of organic agriculture, taking into account the locality. Targeted measures of State support are needed to develop the organic agriculture production. Conclusions. The available conceptual framework of regional development theories permits to identify certain approaches to assessing the impact of this type of agriculture on the economy of location, the possibility of its clustering and transformation into a pole of regional economic development. At the same time, organic agricultural production requires a lot of attention from the State.
The article substantiates the potential of organic production for sustainable development of rural areas in Ukraine. The author identifies organic farming as a key tool for promoting economic growth, preserving natural resources, and restoring ecosystems, which are essential for addressing environmental, economic, and social challenges. Specifically, it has been proven that organic farming contributes to increased biodiversity, the restoration of soil fertility, and the reduction of water pollution levels, which are crucial for achieving sustainable development goals. The paper proposes a range of promising directions for the development of organic production in Ukraine. It has been determined that rural areas face numerous challenges, including an aging population, youth migration, weak infrastructure, and low levels of investment. Organic production could serve as a means of overcoming these challenges by creating new jobs and increasing the income levels of local communities. The author highlights that the growing demand for organic products, both in Ukraine and abroad, opens new economic opportunities for farmers. The article provides statistical data demonstrating the dynamics of the global organic market's growth and its impact on Ukraine. Specifically, in recent years, there has been an increase in the area of land dedicated to organic farming, although the pace of development remains uneven due to the influence of military actions and other socio-economic factors. The ecological benefits of organic production have been clearly defined. It has been proven that abandoning the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides reduces the negative impact on ecosystems and helps restore natural resources. Organic farming, through the implementation of sustainable agro-technologies, can enhance resilience to climate change and reduce soil erosion. As a result of the research, the necessity of enhancing state support for the organic sector has been identified, particularly through the implementation of subsidy programs and the development of infrastructure for the sale of organic products. An important aspect is raising public awareness about the benefits of organic products, which would stimulate demand and encourage farmers to adopt organic farming methods. Key aspects of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have been analyzed, particularly in the context of the impact of organic production on environmental, economic, and social components. The article thoroughly examines the achievement of indicators set for Goal 2 – «Zero Hunger and Agricultural Development» and Goal 15 – «Life on Land.» In particular, attention is drawn to Indicator 2.3.3, which concerns the share of agricultural land under organic production. Despite challenges caused by economic and military factors, this indicator has shown positive growth dynamics in Ukraine, contributing to food security and increasing the resilience of agro-systems to climate change. Regarding the indicators of Goal 15, the achievement of Indicator 15.3.4 – «Restoration of Degraded Lands and Soils» has been analyzed in detail. It has been proven that the implementation of organic farming contributes to the restoration of soil fertility, the reduction of erosion, and the decrease in the use of chemical substances, positively impacting the state of natural ecosystems. The article presents data showing a gradual increase in the area of land dedicated to organic farming, despite reductions in some regions due to military actions. The article emphasizes that to achieve the target SDG indicators, it is necessary to implement innovative technologies in agriculture and promote the development of organic farming, which has already demonstrated its effectiveness in terms of biodiversity conservation and the restoration of degraded lands. The types of organic products suitable for cultivation in different regions of Ukraine have been developed and proposed, taking into account the climatic and soil characteristics of the territories, as well as the existing experience in rural communities regarding the cultivation of specific agricultural crops. It is argued that the paths to achieving sustainable development indicators through the development of organic production include comprehensive state support measures, educational programs, and the stimulation of cooperation among farmers to ensure the ecological and economic sustainability of rural areas. The conclusion is substantiated that the development of organic production in Ukraine is a crucial element of the sustainable development strategy for rural areas. It contributes to solving a range of social, economic, and environmental problems, ensuring ecological stability and economic development in rural areas.
Non-technical summary
Agriculture has been dominated by annual plants, such as all cereals and oilseeds, since the very beginning of civilization over 10,000 years ago. Annual plants are planted and uprooted every year which results in severe disturbance of the soil and disrupts ecosystem services. Science has shown that it is possible to domesticate completely new perennial grain crops, i.e. planted once and harvested year after year. Such crops would solve many of the problems of agriculture, but their development and uptake would be at odds with the current agricultural technology industry.
Technical summary
Agriculture is arguably the most environmentally destructive innovation in human history. A root cause is the reliance on annual crops requiring uprooting and restarting every season. Most environmental predicaments of agriculture can be attributed to the use of annuals, as well as many social, political, and economic ones. Advances in domestication and breeding of novel perennial grain crops have demonstrated the possibility of a future agricultural shift from annual to perennial crops. Such a change could have many advantages over the current agricultural systems which are to over 80% based on annual crops mainly grown in monocultures. We analyze and review the prospects for such scientific advances to be adopted and scaled to a level where it is pertinent to talk about a perennial revolution. We follow the logic of E.O. Wright's approach of Envisioning Real Utopias by discussing the desirability, viability, and achievability of such a transition. Proceeding from Lakatos' theory of science and Lukes' three dimensions of power, we discuss the obstacles to such a transition. We apply a transition theory lens to formulate four reasons of optimism that a perennial revolution could be imminent within 3–5 decades and conclude with an invitation for research.
This issue proposes care as a framework for critical action to critique capitalist modes of spatial production. We put forward perspectives on urban care, institutions of care, and care as agency, to argue that care as critical action refers to individual and collective mobilization for the radical changes society needs today. Regressive forms of individualism have undermined the social imagination and eroded civic institutions. Care for "the other," for individual and collective life, for the planet, and for the city must be brought to the forefront of our relations of thought.
This issue includes 11 papers, an afterword, and a visual essay by Patrizio Martinelli.
1 Editorial
2 Lorens Holm, My neighbour, the subject of civilisation
3 Nathanael Nelson, Deconstructing Hospitality. Postcolonial Care in the Built Environment
4 Andrew Copolov, The urban staffroom. Imagining infrastructures of care and solidarity in Melbourne
5 Ceara O’Leary, Community Hubs as Networks of Care
6 Jiayi Jin & Yuxin Wu, Careful Careless. A System to Restore Ecological Systems in Cities
7 Lee Ivett & Ecaterina Stefanescu, To Make is to Care
8 Jonathan Orlek, Claire McAndrew, Cristina Cerulli, Mara Ferreri, Marianna Cavada & Eleanor Ratcliffe, For a relational understanding of care in critical urban action
9 Sofia Rivera, The caregivers’ strike: a tale of violence and care in the entrails of San Salvador
10 Carolina Correia dos Santos & Iazana Guizzo, Paths of banana trees: passages of care between unequal worlds
11 Mathilde Redouté, Accurate commoning: between primitive and new enclosures
12 Huda Tayob, Archival Care
13 Cameron McEwan & Nadia Bertolino, Afterword
One of the most difficult problems facing many parts of the world, particularly developing countries, is soil dilapidation, which is still a major hazard that is garnering attention on a worldwide scale due to practical reasons that are directly driven by natural phenomena. Despite the value of soil, its repercussions for dilapidation—possibly brought on by various physical, biological, and chemical processes produced by certain processes (both naturally occurring and induced by humans) that reduce sustainable yield—lead to a long-lasting, persistent devaluation of soil. Therefore, the goal of this review is to provide a detailed historical background of soil dilapidation, its natural occurrences, variables that contribute to these occurrences, mitigation and management strategies, and policy and regulatory approaches to soil management based on previously published material. Furthermore, a discussion and presentation of various technological approaches are provided to mitigate and manage the process of soil dilapidation and nature protection, along with the opportunities and prospects.
Organic farming, which is deeply rooted in traditional agricultural practices, has witnessed a profound evolution over the last century. Transitioning from a grassroots initiative resisting the industrialization of agriculture to a global industry, organic farming now plays a pivotal role in addressing contemporary challenges related to environmental health, sustainability, and food safety. Despite the growing consumer demand for organic products and market access, organic farming has its challenges. This paper discusses the origin and evolution of organic farming with an emphasis on different types of organic fertilizers, benefits, and challenges. Nutrient variability and the slow-release nature of organic fertilizer often do not meet crop demands and can substantially reduce yield. Some organic fertilizers, like manure and biosolids, can provide a higher yield benefit, but there are environmental and health risks associated with them. Weed and pest management in organic farming can be labor-intensive and increase costs. Inefficient planning of organic farming and rapid transition can also create food insecurity. This paper also gives a brief account of the current certification process for organic fertilizers and their technicalities. It showcases how the holistic approach of organic farming extends beyond production, including strategies like reducing food waste and building self-sufficient farming communities. These practices contribute to a more sustainable agricultural system, reducing environmental impacts and supporting local economies. Future technological innovations, especially in precision agriculture and bio-physicochemical models, can help in formulating targeted organic fertilizers.
As the worldwide waste management problem has risen, composting has gained popularity. It turns organic trash into nutrient-rich soil for agriculture, landscaping, and environmental rehabilitation. This chapter on composting, “Composting for a Sustainable Future: Turning Waste into Nutrient-Rich Soil,” is comprehensive. It covers decomposition science, composting methods, materials, and procedures. Composting's agricultural, landscaping, and environmental remediation benefits are also covered. The chapter also examines composting's role in climate change mitigation, its obstacles, and remedies. Decomposition can help people, businesses, and communities live more sustainably. It urges decomposition and trash reduction and provides information about tools to start composting, a simple yet efficient solution to worldwide waste management.
This study was conducted at the aim of determining development strategies for marketing healthy food products. The study data was collected by conducting field survey and compeleting a questionnaire. Using simple random sampling, about 400 Hamedan citizens were selected in 2013. The data analysis was conducted by ordinal Logit model with method of maximum Likelihood. According to the results, 32 percent of people do not tend to shopping healthy food products, 34.3 percent of people ignored shopping of healthy food products, 33.8 percent of them tend to shopping of healthy food products. The results of estimating the ordinal Logit model presented that strategies such as cognition indicators, environment lover, Advertising and Information, Education, Supportive and monitoring facilities, structural and Service facilities and economic indicator should be considered as marketing strategies to develop healthy food products. In order to develop the healthy food market, the long term programs in the three sectors of products, consumption and marketing should be considered from specific purposes.
Modern soil science draws on geological-physical-chemical approaches on one side, on bio-ecological approaches on the other, and on modelling. An important precondition to develop modern European mainstream natural sciences has been to remove God, any deities or spirits from creation. In this context, nature is no longer seen as a divine creation. Instead, human rationalism, natural determinism and mechanistic models have become predominant. However, European scientific views on soil and agriculture comprise more than one paradigm and there is more than one storyline to be told. This chapter sketches some basic concepts of Western scientific thinking, describes the nutrient elements theory, discusses the humus history, explores economics and functionalism, addresses soil systems theory, and investigates agroecology and agro-technology. Minority movements of science tried to integrate ideas of living soil and its vital forces (and health), mother earth, and the circle of life and death in their theories. This chapter also includes the subcultural agricultural movements of organic farming that emerged in Europe.
All modes of managing soil, ways of exploring and of relating to it have their origins that are linked with cultural patterns – be they religious or secular ones – and are thus broadly contextualized. Even scientific patterns of soil understanding are not just “evidence-based” in a narrow or even naïve sense, but they are part of human history and were influenced by many things, including the individual lives of scientists, and unconscious factors. There were and always are alternative perspectives and interpretations of “nature.” The most influential scientific paradigm and practices developed in Europe and North America have become globally dominant, with little regard for other views and experiences. In contrast, knowledge about cultural rooting spaces and the origins of modern soil science approaches can help raise awareness of their societal and psychic context, including their ambiguous rewards and threads. This might lead to more reflection and caution in progress as well as in cultural recourse, and to more freedom in the approaches available to the nature of soils and to the culture of understanding.
The philosophy of “do-nothing farming” proposed by Masanobu Fukuoka in his book ‘The One-Straw Revolution’, has had an enduring influence on new agrarian movements worldwide. And it inspired people all over the world to rethink their relationship with the natural system, from the choices that define our consumption patterns to the way we define land management. As we draw closer to the limits set by the earth, we need to re-evaluate our priorities based on climate justice, resilience, and sustainable growth. The paper investigates ‘Soil City’ as a nature-based, collective effort that prioritises eco-system services, and it proposes systems thinking with 4 ‘tools’ that will help people to remediate soil and restore ecological systems.
How can we feed China? This continual question intersects the human, social, and economic problems that China has confronted for at least over a century. This project stems from my intellectual and activist concern to reimagine our food future in terms of the challenge of feeding the people and caring for the agricultural environment in China. Agriculture, which includes peasants, villages and the land, has been an enduring material
and theoretical subject for the Chinese communist agrarian revolution and transformation. Drawing on Chen Kuan-hsing’s Asia as Method (2010), I analyse farming as an evolving social and historical-material practice. This entails a decolonial contextualization in rethinking Chinese modernisation. I propose the concept of farming as method to analyse the shifting conjuncture of food production and consumption within specific historical, social and material conditions—namely from socialist to reformist China. I ground this with empirical data collected during my ethnography of food activism in the Guangdong area.
My thesis is structured by three major moments. First, for the Maoist “long collectivisation” (1950s–70s), I analyse what I call the “socialist toilet system,” which
transformed the ancient practice of recycling human waste into the Maoist mass movement bringing together agricultural productivity and public hygiene. I argue that this provides a metabolic account for understanding the shifting condition of local and geopolitics under the Cold War to demonstrate how food and agriculture became an ideological battlefield. Second, I show that the movement of agrarian renaissance in South China countered the reformist development, which resulted in pressing food issues such as the decline of farming labour, widespread environmental pollution, and food insecurity. These attempts for revitalising “traditional” farming knowledge becomes a cultural method for rural advocacy and later for food activism of community-supported agriculture (CSA) to consider peasants’ Mao-era experience, grain production and collective need. Third, I investigate a participatory method for forming producer-consumer connections in response to the recurring food scares in China, which highlights a rural-urban nexus fueled by the convivial actions of consumers. I focus on the articulation of a “convivial technique,” a participatory method that recognises and negotiates responsibilities among different actors caring for the agricultural commons. I conclude that farming as method provides a historically grounded, socially engaged, and ecologically concerned approach to think about our food present and future.
This article is based on an action research that has been trying to optimize the five key factors of sustainable agricultural system in a one-hectare farm in a semi-arid, urban setting in India. The five factors for optimization include moisture, soil, seed, diversity and ecology. The experiments adopts in-situ water conservation for moisture management, on farm biomass, cow dung and cow urine based microbial rich water for soil health improvement, genetically stable indigenous seeds of respective climate zone, diverse field crops and fruit trees to meet nutritional needs of 12 families through cereal, pulses, root crops, oilseeds, vegetables, spices, fruits, honey, milk etc. The results on water conservation, soil health improvement, crop yield, milk production, and diversity have significantly improved and the forest system around the farm is also looking to stabilize. As compared to the control plot, water holding capacity of the experimental farm increased by eight times within a period of one year. Accordingly, the farm could trap nearly 80% of 100,000 litres of water per hectare for every 1 cm rainfall. Organic carbon of soil in the experimental plot was observed to increase by 50% within the first eight months of action research. The yield of pulses was 2.5 times that of national average yield; vegetables and root crops yield increased by about 2 times, Nutritional quality of the food items were high and customer demand for this farm produce has been growing. The gross income in year 1 of the experiment was INR 198,000 and it expected to reach INR 350,000 in the second year.
This is the e-souviner of the National workshop on skill based entomology held from 27-29 Jan, 2020 at University of Rajasthan, Jaipur. The souviner consists of protocols and invited talk delivered by eminent scientists and researchers.
The article evaluates the extent to which estate garden allotments in the Federated Malay States (FMS) contributed to the socioeconomic development of Tamil labourers from the opening of the 20 th century until 1941. By the late nineteenth century, the British government had initiated an immigrant agriculture policy in response to the need of preserving sufficient labour force to service the industrial economy. The extensive development of rubber industry from the early twentieth century, however, led to the permanent revocation of the policy, considering extensive immigration of large numbers of Tamil labourers was guaranteed through the Tamil (later, Indian) Immigration Fund Ordinance. Nevertheless, the policy did resurface from time to time during periods of economic recession following the First World War from 1917 and the Great Depression in the 1930s. It was when industrial slowdown compelled the British administration and rubber capitalists to preserve as many labourers as possible. The strategy was to induce them in undertaking allotment farming, which was embodied in the 1928 Labour Code. This article serves a twofold purpose. First, to analyze the extent to which the allotments on selected estates were able to alleviate the socioeconomic problems of the Tamils and; secondly, to evaluate the possibility of their transforming into agriculturalists and small-scale food vendors. The final part highlights allotment units, foodstuff cultivation and livestock farming as essential ingredients required for the socioeconomic functioning of estate agricultural allotments.
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