Is Soil Merely a Means? Reconsidering the Nexus Among Humans, Plants, and Soil

The world will almost certainly remain highly populated for the next 100 years. During this period, it will be necessary to engage in two pursuits that may conflict with each other: increasing food production and addressing soil degradation. This situation may prompt a rethinking of the nexus among humans, plants, and soil. If soil degradation is an urgent problem, one could argue, as eco-modernists do, that we should make maximum use of technology to decouple agricultural production from the natural world. By doing so, we might be able to reduce the land area used for agricultural production, returning as much soil as possible to nature and encouraging soil recovery. This kind of argument, which places great hopes on new technologies and promotes soil substitution, expresses a somewhat limited perspective. Appropriate agricultural practices for soil conservation must be determined not only based on quantitative assessments of environmental impacts, but also by considering aspects such as soil values and technological uncertainties. By pointing this out, this chapter attempts to provide clues for reconsidering the nexus among humans, plants, and soil.