Soil health and well-being: Redefining soil health based upon a plurality of values

Abstract

The dominant research paradigm for soil health emphasizes instrumental values to achieve sustainable food systems. However, soil provides a plurality of values in society beyond instrumental value contributing to human well-being. This research aims to understand the relational values that soil provides farmers by examining the meaningfulness and intrinsic motivation for building soil health among wheat farmers in the Inland Pacific Northwest (iPNW). Data were collected from two soil health work sessions and 11 in-depth semi-structured interviews with innovator wheat farmers to understanding broader perspectives and meanings of soil health. Four themes of relational values emerged from the data showing the link between soil health and human well-being. The results suggest that the term soil health should not be exclusively assessed by its instrumental values but also by its relational values supporting a plural valuation of soil health. Incorporating soil health's plural valuation into research will contribute to more effective holistic innovations supporting human and environmental well-being. This research provides important insights into defining soil health and for transforming the innovation paradigm of soil health to include relational values and cultural ecosystem services for transforming our current food system into an equitable, sustainable, healthy, and just system. Changing soil health assessments to acknowledge additional soil health management outcomes related to human well-being may facilitate decision-making, support the intrinsic motivation of soil health, and provide support to transformative food systems.

Keywords

• Ethnopedology
• Soil quality
• Qualitative
• Adoption
• Perception
• Soil security