Soil Health

Practical insights from 5 re:build sessions on implementing soil health in regenerative villages.

Overview

Soil Health is a fundamental component of regenerative village development. This guide synthesizes knowledge from re:build gatherings to provide practical insights for implementing soil health in community projects.

Methods and Approaches

Regenerative soil health practices center on understanding soil as a living system and recognizing our relationship with soil as fundamental to life. Key approaches include:

Holistic soil management: Adopting a comprehensive view of soil ecosystems, understanding how all components—plants, microorganisms, fungi, and organic matter—work together to create healthy, resilient soil.

Soil cover (armor): Maintaining continuous soil cover through living plants, which protects soil from erosion, regulates temperature, retains moisture, and provides habitat for beneficial organisms.

Large-scale composting: Implementing comprehensive composting operations that recycle organic materials back into the soil, building organic matter and supporting microbial life.

Comprehensive data collection: Systematically tracking soil health indicators, management practices, and outcomes to understand what works and scale successful approaches.

Early intervention systems: Using monitoring and management techniques that identify and address potential issues like pests, diseases, or nutrient imbalances before they become problems.

Benefits

When soil health is prioritized through holistic management approaches, communities experience multiple interconnected benefits:

Improved water retention: Healthy soils with abundant organic matter and living organisms can retain significantly more water, reducing irrigation needs and increasing resilience to drought.

Reduced input dependency: By understanding and supporting natural soil processes, communities can reduce or eliminate the need for synthetic fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides.

Enhanced productivity: Healthy soils support more robust plant growth, higher yields, and greater biodiversity, creating more resilient agricultural systems.

Carbon sequestration: Well-managed soils can sequester significant amounts of carbon, contributing to climate mitigation while improving soil structure and fertility.

Cost savings: Reduced need for external inputs, combined with improved productivity, can significantly lower operational costs over time.

Ecosystem restoration: Healthy soils support broader ecosystem health, including improved water quality, increased biodiversity, and enhanced ecosystem services.

Key Insights

Water retention indicators: The more water that can be retained in soil through life (plants, microorganisms, fungi, and all the pieces that hold soil together), the better the soil health. This is a great indicator of soil vitality.

Early pest and disease management: Some approaches can identify and address pests or diseases long before they become problems, and manage competing foliage that robs nitrogen from soils without needing herbicides—this is a significant advantage.

Soil degradation critique: Some models critique approaches that extract and abuse resources for profit and quick gain, depleting water, soil, and air quality. Regenerative approaches seek to restore rather than deplete.

Soil cover (armor): Keep soil covered—this "armor" (mostly plants) is important for soil protection. Starting projects with soil cover in mind is one of the most important aspects of regenerative agriculture.

Comprehensive data collection: Some projects in the European Union are collecting data on all systems and activities, including things like raising organic material in soil, creating comprehensive datasets for analysis and improvement.

Large-scale composting: Large compost operations are part of many projects, measuring different aspects to understand what's important so practices can be scaled up effectively.

Holistic soil management: If you change management to a holistic approach and understand how soil functions, it becomes much easier to support soil health and regeneration.

Examples and Case Studies

Soil cover as project foundation: Many successful regenerative projects prioritize soil cover from the very beginning. By ensuring soil is always protected with living plants—what practitioners call "soil armor"—projects establish a foundation for long-term soil health. This approach is considered one of the most critical aspects of regenerative agriculture implementation.

European Union data collection initiatives: Several projects across the European Union are implementing comprehensive data collection systems that track all soil management activities and systems. These initiatives monitor factors such as organic matter increases in soil, creating valuable datasets that help identify effective practices and support scaling successful approaches.

Large-scale composting operations: Many regenerative projects operate substantial composting facilities as core components of their soil health strategy. These operations systematically measure various aspects of the composting process and soil response, gathering data on what matters most for effective scaling of soil regeneration practices.

Best Practices

Start with soil cover: Prioritize maintaining continuous soil cover from the beginning of any project. This "armor" of living plants is fundamental to protecting and building healthy soil.

Understand soil as a living system: Recognize that healthy soil is teeming with life—plants, microorganisms, fungi, and organic matter all work together. Understanding these relationships is key to effective soil management.

Monitor water retention: Use water retention capacity as a key indicator of soil health. Soils that can retain more water through biological processes (rather than just physical structure) demonstrate better overall health.

Implement holistic management: Shift from isolated interventions to holistic approaches that consider how all soil components interact. When you understand how soil functions as a system, supporting its health becomes much easier.

Build organic matter systematically: Focus on increasing organic matter in soil through composting, cover crops, and other organic inputs. This supports the entire soil food web.

Collect comprehensive data: Track soil health indicators, management practices, and outcomes systematically. This data helps identify what works and supports scaling successful approaches.

Address issues early: Use monitoring systems that can identify potential problems like pests, diseases, or nutrient imbalances before they become serious issues, allowing for proactive management.

Return to soil as source of life: Cultivate a relationship with soil that recognizes it as the foundation of life. This perspective shift informs better decision-making and long-term commitment to soil health.

Implementation Guide

To implement soil health in your regenerative village project, consider the following approach:

1. Assess current soil conditions: Begin by evaluating existing soil health through testing and observation. Document baseline conditions including organic matter content, water retention capacity, microbial activity, and overall soil structure.

2. Establish soil cover immediately: Prioritize getting soil covered with living plants as soon as possible. This might include cover crops, perennial plantings, or other vegetation that protects soil from erosion and supports biological activity.

3. Set up composting systems: Design and implement composting operations appropriate to your scale. This could range from small-scale community composting to larger operations, depending on available organic materials and project needs.

4. Develop monitoring protocols: Create systems for tracking key soil health indicators over time. This might include regular soil testing, visual assessments, water infiltration tests, and documentation of management practices.

5. Implement holistic management practices: Shift from reactive, input-based approaches to proactive, systems-based management. Focus on supporting natural soil processes rather than replacing them.

6. Build organic matter systematically: Develop strategies for consistently adding organic matter to soil through composting, cover crops, crop residues, and other organic inputs.

7. Create data collection systems: Establish protocols for documenting all soil management activities, outcomes, and observations. This data will help identify effective practices and support continuous improvement.

8. Plan for long-term commitment: Recognize that building soil health is a long-term process. Develop management plans that support soil health over years and decades, not just single growing seasons.

9. Engage the community: Ensure all community members understand the importance of soil health and their role in supporting it. This shared understanding creates collective commitment to soil stewardship.

10. Adapt and learn: Use collected data and observations to continuously refine approaches. What works in one context may need adjustment in another, so maintain flexibility and learning orientation.