Soil as a climate stabiliser

We believe healthy living soil play a huge role in stabilising the climate.

In particular we value that when addressing Climate Change, the value and contribution of soils are fully appreciated and acted upon.

Therefore we need to bring soil protection and regeneration into all actions related to climate change prevention and mitigation in the West of England.

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Long-term, solution focussed decision making

We believe that all people fundamentally want a reliable and resilient support system and that soil provides this to all living things. Currently soil is critically undervalued and poorly understood.

In particular we value long-term-view decision making – that which enables us to act responsibly on behalf of future generations so we stop depleting their life support system.

Therefore we need to gather the necessary evidence of solutions we can apply here, and start using collaborative, reflective and thought-allowing decision making processes, with future generations at the core of this.

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Planning policy and law

We believe that the lack of dedicated expertise in soil science and sustainable agriculture within planning authorities at central and local level is putting us in a perilous situation.

In particular we believe that this expertise is vital to informed planning decisions for future resilience.

Therefore we need to introduce a legal requirement for expertise and knowledge of soil and sustainable food production to be integral to planning departments at all levels. We also need to create an agricultural use class for soils of a city region.

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Preferential and proactive support for regenerative agricultural practices.

We believe that much of our soil resource has already been damaged and depleted be misguided agricultural development and industrial practices.

In particular we believe that the need to repair damaged soils and prevent future damage is essential.

Therefore we need to challenge economic drivers that damage soil and apply a convention for biological diversity to soils. We need to create accountable and measurable targets for soil biodiversity in agriculture in the West of England and planning and its effect on soil.

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City Education

We believe that strong links between communities and their local soils can enable cultural, economic, health and wellbeing benefits leading to resilient, confident communities.

In particular we value approaches that connect communities to their natural wealth and the governance of them.

We therefore need to ensure that education, awareness and access empowers communities to understand, value and use their local soils for local benefit.

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Embodied experiences in childhood

We believe everyone has the right to have a full understanding of our vital connection with soils.

In particular we believe that everyone should have access to embodied experiences of healthy soils.

Therefore we need to make building a relationship to soil integral to every childhood.

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One Planet Development / Interdependence

We believe all life on earth is interdependent with the life of soils.

In particular we value cultural, economic, spiritual and political practices that prevent damage to and nourish and nurture the health and diversity of living soils.

Therefore we need to place the One Planet Development strategy, and not exploitative and depleting practices at the heart of all our city and city region policies. This includes a declaration on the rights of soil.

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Education for decision making (1)

We believe soil is one very important criteria in land classification.

In particular we value a diversity of soils that facilitate different land uses.

Therefore we need to develop information and understanding about land use appropriate to land type and use this when planning development to make good decisions that are defensible.

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Education for decision making (2)

We believe the direct correlation between healthy soils, healthy people and a healthy world must be recognised and acted upon.

In particular we value those who support the living soil and who provide wise leadership around education about soil and those who use it wisely.

Therefore we need to develop education and engagement with all communities of Bristol around decisions and actions concerning soil and land use whilst ensuring good information is available to all to support this.

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Reconnection

We believe that soil is undervalued and that humans are generally disconnected from soil and food production.

In particular we value that working with soil has the potential to bring people together, connecting them and strengthening communities.

Therefore we need to conduct education and outreach – give more people the opportunity for direct connection with each other in the natural world.

Modernise – smoother routes to access allotments / land more school projects – so issues become part of normal life social prescribing make it more visible where people are – growing, foraging, via health services etc make it cool!

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Access to land

We believe we need to reconnect to soil as a fundamental building block of of a sustainable resilient city.

In particular we believe everybody should be able to access to soil and land for food growing and we value the resilience and security that comes from collectively owning our food systems.

Therefore we need to create and protect more places for people to access soil and land.

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Scaling for diverse local production and security

We believe that high quality soils are essential for ensuring global and local food security in the present and in the long term. It is a finite resource and irreplaceable asset.

In particular we value the opportunity to grow and buy food on a local scale across the city region

Therefore we need to -

Identify, map and designate the existing and potential food growing spaces across the West of

England as food growing sites

Create ways to make food growing profitable, aractive, accessible and fair to workers

Change the image of organic and local to be less elitist

Protect space for small scale retail to support small scale production

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Community-connected agriculture

We believe in the power and value of people coming together to grow food.

In particular we believe in the interdependence between community and food security.

Therefore we need to equip people to set up community-centred sustainable urban agriculture projects and enterprises.

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Experiential learning of the interconnections between healthy Soil, Food and Nutrition

We believe that living soil is the foundation of all health and that soils in their natural living form have the power to sustain our future and the diversity of all life on planet Earth.

In particular, we value food grown in balanced, living soils as it provides the vital nutrients and subtle energies that cultivate our capacities and consciousness for living responsibly with the Earth.

The actions needed are community education and life-long learning practices about the interconnections between healthy soil, food and nutrition. This knowledge and skills- sharing will support greater awareness that we are all responsible as food citizens for our health and the health of the soil.

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Food and Soil Rituals for Resilience

We believe that we need to honour our connection with the Earth through thanks-giving soil and food rituals that ground us in the natural world, reconnect us to our ancestors and remind us of the sacred in the every day.

In particular, we value food rituals and culinary traditions which empower people from all walks of life to remember the connection between agriculture and culture and enable us to become active guardians of soil.

The actions needed are to nurture a food culture within family, work and school environments which creates time, space and resource for us all learn to cook, grow, share food and give thanks. An idea would be to promote food-sharing practices in the workplace at least one day a week.

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^{Our innovative partnership between the Centre for Contemporary Art and the Natural World (CCANW) gave rise to Soil Culture at Create in Bristol, UK, during July and August 2015. This summer celebration of soil took place in the Create Centre during Bristol’s year as European Green Capital. Soil Culture at Create featured two exhibitions—Young Shoots curated by CCANW and Dirt Dialogues organized by Alexandra Toland of Soilarts. It also hosted a final residency between the Blue Finger Alliance, a Bristol-based campaign to safeguard high-grade agricultural land, and ourselves. We were engaged by CCANW to coordinate soil-inspired activities to animate the exhibitions. Our response was Soil Saturdays, a diverse program that spanned the eight Saturdays of the exhibitions. The matter of living soil and food was present within the gallery, on the Soil Shrine, as part of activities, and nourishingly and colourfully manifest through freshly prepared food sourced from Bristol and its hinterland. “Curating the convivial” defines an emergent and embodied approach that cultivates food citizenship, a concept that recognizes and deeply engages through food with the ecology of a place and its diverse communities. With limited public funding, our mantra of trust and exchange inspired an atmosphere of enthusiasm, goodwill, faith in the power of imagination, and the sharing of skills and resources, thus strengthening existing networks and promoting resilience. This respect for the “genius loci” and the inhabiting of the ecological self revitalizes a dedication to everyday actions and policymaking that restore and protect healthy soils.}

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