Affective farmer-soil relations and regenerative agricultural practices
Regenerative agriculture is potentially able to sequester carbon, produce healthy food, replace agrochemicals, build soil health, etc. While the solutions that regenerative agriculture offers to today’s major challenges are appealing, it is proving difficult in the current system for farmers to transition to new farming practices.
Despite the numerous and divergent lock-in mechanisms, there are already many farmers who are able to make a good living using regenerative farming practices. They find novel ways of engaging with the soil, which is key to this type of farming. In this PhD project, I will describe the various affective farmer-soil relations that may emerge. While staying close to the empirical data, this thesis also philosophically speculates using processual-relational theories to tell inspiring soil-centred stories.
