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Paper short abstract

Between 80-90 % of soil processes are mediated by microbes, and farmers are increasingly reconfiguring their practices to care for soil life. It can be challenging to care for worms, bacteria, fungi equally. Differing visions of sustainability affect which (soil) life is prioritized.

Paper long abstract

Agriculture has reconfigured microbial constellations as well as the conditions for microbial life itself. In this paper I present findings from research with grain farmers who strive to improve soil biodiversity in the southeast of Norway – an area characterized by monocultures since the 1950s, with detrimental effects for soil health. A small but growing number of farmers within regenerative agriculture and conservation agriculture are working to reverse this trend. In both approaches, minimized soil disturbance is widely acknowledged as a foundational principle. However, diverging views on what “soil disturbance” actually means affects what sustainable soil management looks like in practice, which soil life is valued, and why.

For example, some farmers eliminate all soil tillage and use glyphosate to end their crops and seed into undisturbed soil. They highlight the importance of the worm species Lumbricus terrestris’ ability to engineer deep vertical tunnels that aerate soil and transport water, and its vulnerability to tillage. Other farmers view pesticides as a form of chemical soil disturbance and instead choose to develop ways of shallow soil cultivation. They emphasize the importance of supporting symbiotic fungi and bacteria, and extend their focus from the root microbiome (rhizosphere) to that of leaves (phyllosphere) flowers (anthosphere) and even seeds.

The “microbial turn” in agriculture is well underway, but the turns go in multiple directions. I argue it is important to interrogate the epistemic, political and economic conditions that shape which microbes are foregrounded or forgotten, subsequently shaping imaginaries and possibilities for resilient natures.