January 2026

​​​Soil Publications

An exciting new book Back to the Ground! The book brings together perspectives from the social sciences and humanities on how soils and subsoils are increasingly mobilized to tackle climate change and ecological issues. Through an interdisciplinary lens, the book examines the social and ecological implications of these ground-based technological promises, addressing how they both dwell upon and reorient the joint becoming of social and geological strata in the Anthropocene.

Soils Turn - A Field Guide to Artistic Earthly Engagements offers an extensive overview of artistic approaches to working with soils, mainly focussing on the 10 years since the 2015 International Year of Soils. The book showcases a range of aesthetic, social, and political approaches to creatively studying and caring for soils. Sections on Assembling, Caring, Figuring, Listening, Metabolizing, Surfacing, and Witnessing comprise works of over 150 international artists and essays by co-editors Patricia Watts and Alexandra Toland, with guest contributions from Elise Malik, Lisa Moren, Agnes Rameder, Jackie Amézquita and Lili Flores Aguilar, Marcus Maeder, and Claire Pentecost.

How can soil science become a driver of transdisciplinary transformation? This interesting paper “From Soil Pits to Global Goals”, with many case studies, looks to soil science pedagogy and proposes a focus on soil science pedagogy. This study advocates a bold re-envisioning of soil science pedagogy, aimed at cultivating the inter- and transdisciplinary competencies essential for achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

How is soil health reported on in the media? This analysis of UK articles shows that there is very little media coverage on the topic, and that “news reports are largely devoid of addressing the root causes of climate change, very rarely feature policymakers' voices, prioritise adaptive measures over mitigation and make frequent use of generic visuals.”

The 14th collection of Roadsides is dedicated to Foodways. It explores the relationships between infrastructure and food systems, focusing on the ways food needs infrastructure to come into, move through and be in the world. In the last chapter, Carlotta Molfese offers a remarkable photo-essay about mulch and its (de)composition, reflecting upon their practice and experience of growing soil with mulch as a way to explore the relationship between infrastructures and autonomy in agroecological food production.  

In this recent article, a transdisciplinary team draw on case studies in Aotearoa New Zealand investigates the challenges of transdisciplinary soil research. Five key steps for undertaking soil-centred research are outlined: addressing complex challenges, building relationships, weaving knowledges and building connectivity, developing holistic understandings and moving beyond knowledge translation. 

The project hub of the Mission Soil Platform published a review of more than two hundreds research projects on soil health funded under the Mission and other relevant initiatives. It provides information on the goals, activities, and results, factual or expected, of the projects and initiatives, outlining the relevance to Mission objectives.

​​​Soil Arts

​The Philippines pavilion at the Venice Biennale of Architecture presented Soil-beings (Lamánlupa), which reimagines architecture through the principles of soil-body and soil-time. Architecture often reduces soil to a stabilising substance providing ecosystem services. However, by perceiving soil as alive and forceful, the project explores how it might reshape architectural aspirations and solutions. ArchDaily has a good article reviewing it too.

In Kunstwerk Kolderveen in the Netherlands, an exhibition Soil Works will open on 6th December. Through her ongoing research the artist Elena Khurtova has been exploring processes of soil displacement, researching soil management sites — the grondbanken, where excavated soils are temporarily stored, classified and redistributed. Under EU legislation excavated soil of more than 50 m3 is considered waste. On these physical sites, concrete-block walls are used to temporarily host and separate piles of soil: soils are cared for and contained. By juxtaposing notions of automation and intimacy, waste and kinship, containment and resistance, Khurtova investigates the ambiguity of control and care in human relations with soil.

The exhibition Artes de la Tierra (Arts of the Earth) at the Guggenheim Bilbao offers a reinterpretation of the transformations that artistic practices have undergone in recent decades against the backdrop of an increasingly evident and unfathomable environmental crisis. Drawing on a multidisciplinary and diverse cartography, the exhibition offers a possible inventory of tools, prototypes, and hypotheses. These are presented not in a “prescriptive” manner, dictating what should be done, thought, or felt, but rather in a documentary style, collecting signs of the shift that, in the last 60 years at least, has affected aesthetic production in terms of both materials and awareness of them. This transformation is attested to by a number of historical works, partially or totally reconstructed, recreated or reactivated, as well as contemporary pieces that, far from wanting to last forever, pave the way for a circular economy of art. Their existence is thus contingent on the maintenance of the ecosystems in which they originate and to which they will return.

The soil of the year 2026 in Switzerland is the archive soil. The study of the 14 horizons reveals the traces left by ancient cultures.

​​​Soil Conferences

​TerraEnVision is open for session proposals on soil-related topics; the conference will take place in September 2026. Terra EnVision is a transdisciplinary conference whose aim is to facilitate the dialogue between scientists and stakeholders who with the same goal, work on the same societal issue but with different backgrounds. It aims to provide a platform for a broad range of stakeholders that together can exchange experiences and identify new transformational pathways towards a sustainable society within the planetary boundaries. TERRAenVISION promotes the exchange of scientific research, solutions from industry and insights from policy for interdisciplinary collaboration and networking. 

On Friday, 21 November 2025, the Healthy Municipal Soils (HuMUS) project held its final conference in Brussels. Bringing together policymakers, soil stewards, municipalities, regional authorities, researchers, farmers, urban planners, and civil society to share knowledge and outcomes from the three-year Horizon Europe project HuMUS, a total of 34 pilot projects, involving a total number of at least 300 Quadruple Helix stakeholders were identified and supported for their good practices of participatory soil health management.

​​​Soil Podcast

Shout out to the Soil Sisters Podcast Series: Voices Rooted in Resilience produced by Understand an initiative of the SWIFT platform (Supporting Women-led Innovations in Farming and rural Territories). The first four episodes discuss barriers that women-led and queer farming initiatives face like land access, precarity, migration, care burdens, and low institutional trust. The guests from various countries lift up everyday strengths such as mutual aid, territorial markets, cultural memory, and collective organizing. ​

​​​​Special section: SCN members speak about the Soil Monitoring Law

Thank you to all SCN members who have sent in their reactions to the Soil Monitoring Law. We summarised the responses we have received.

SCN members overall find it encouraging that Member States will now have to develop more elaborate frameworks to assess the state of their soils, and see the legislation is an encouraging step toward strengthening soil protection across Europe. It is also widely acknowledged that the legislation has no ‘teeth’ – it does not direct action towards soil protection.

While monitoring is a start, and indeed needed, but it's far away from being a purposeful action towards soil regeneration. Having soil descriptors with non-binding targets gives some room of freedom but little indications on how and why (important!) to improve soil health.

One concern is that the EU is showing a tendency to treat monitoring itself as the solution. Instead there should be deeper reflection on what we actually mean by “healthy soils,” and for whom. Will “health” be equated simply with indicators like soil organic carbon for feasibility measures, or will broader ecological processes, such as nutrient leaching, biodiversity, and hydrological functions, be meaningfully considered? It is only through such reflection and associated practices that we can develop soil care which responds to dynamic and context-specific nature of soil life.

Further, farmers and land managers need to be at the centre of the implementation. Ensuring that Member States fully implement the mandate and provide sufficient technical and financial support to farmers and foresters, so that the goals of the Directive translate into tangible results. A farmers’ organization representative wrote that they are particularly encouraged by the emphasis on supporting farmers and foresters without adding administrative burdens, as well as the focus on improving knowledge and collaboration at the Member State level. This approach has strong potential to promote sustainable land management while respecting the realities of agricultural practice. At the moment, some farmers are willing, if not ready to improve their soils, but they do it mostly in a pioneering and lonely way - they feel unsupported by policies and technicians and they rely on individual initiative or private sectors' innovation. How will the implementation of the policy help soil health oriented farming exit from its niche? Could it help accessing data on soils, help track improvements, show which practices make a difference, and guarantee support in testing and consulting?

This links to the challenge of implementation. There is little political awareness (if not helplessness) over soil health, and poor coordination over policy priorities and institutions that are actually in charge of soils (contested between agriculture/forestry, environmental, energy and urban planning). This is an issue: how to establish the soil districts (art. 4 and 5) and "competent authorities" that are required by the Law? Some municipalities SCN members have interviewed feel unprepared and inadequate to answer any question on soil improvement. How could they be supported – what can the soil research community do?

In the future, we also need more coalition-building and political lobbying amongst soil researchers: Johan Bouma wrote: ”it’s up to the soil science community to act! Show that measuring soil health can be done and can be interesting, tasty material for politicians to pose as environmental My hope is that the Directive will lead to practical, on-the-ground measures that enhance soil health, biodiversity, and resilience to climate change.