Paper short abstract:

Three permaculture projects in Sardinia (Italy) are presented to show different levels of advocating other-than-humans actors in the care and production of soil. Permaculture offers an ethical-technical frame based on taking responsibility of one' s actions towards earth and people.

Paper long abstract:

This contribution attains to an ethnographic research on Sardinian Permaculturalists practices (Italy). It briefly introduces to permaculture showing how its three ethics (earth care, people care, fair share) advocate a philosophical framework based on taking responsibility of one’s actions towards humans, non-humans, other-than-humans and the environment. Ethics are put into practice through design principles and technical tools to shape meaningful practices. Case studies will be quickly presented: three farms show three ways of articulating responsibility into aware actions of caring: one in Nurra (northern Sardinia), one in Medio Campidano (central Sardinia), one in the surroundings of Cagliari (south Sardinia).

These farming projects bring about three (interconnected) approaches to the care of earth and soil in the antropocene: from the smallest actors of the game (bacteria) to the medium-scale ones (animals and humans) to the widest ones (European agriculture funding programs). In Cagliari Anna breeds what she calls “my beloved pets”: bacterial compounds and “fermented concoction” she entrusts on for the renewal of her soil, a land purchased years ago as uncultivable that is now a splendid vegetable garden. In Medio Campidano Luca and Maria recovered a family field in which they work together with hens and other animals that "produce the soil", with wild animals and birds that "plant" useful new herbs. In Nurra Marco puts abandoned land back into production by recovering ancient grains, putting into dialogue the European funds rules with ancient Sardinian agro-pastoral practices.