Ethical acknowledgment of soil ecosystem integrity amid agricultural production in Australia

Abstract

The growing adoption of no-till cropping and other minimal-impact farming practices in recent decades signals a shift in how soil is understood and valued. Eschewing vigorous disturbance, standard in the West (and beyond) since the Neolithic Revolution, farmers instead learn to intervene with the soil profile more sensitively. This article focuses on the concept of soil integrity and its significance for farmers' ethical relationship to soils in everyday practice, using the case study of pasture cropping, an Australian form of agriculture that extends no-till methods to embrace ecological relationships within and beyond the soil. Prioritizing the integrity of soil ecosystems often requires reconceiving what soil is and should be. Soil can be difficult to see as ethically significant partly because it often appears as a granular bulk good, seemingly featureless and fungible. To counteract this, farmers who care for soil integrity use various heuristic and aesthetic strategies to render soil integrity more perceptible and intelligible. The author considers how a keener perception of soil integrity may enable greater attunement toward the soil condition, acknowledgement of soil distress, and thus ethical responsiveness. The article considers this through a broader discussion of phenomenological ethics.