Ways of (un)knowing landscapes

Tracing more-than-human relations in regenerative agriculture

Bibliographic Data

ID8095887
AuthorsGalina Kallio (0000-0001-8499-9541, University of Helsinki, corresponding author), William Lafleur (0000-0002-4427-7744, University of Helsinki), Will Lafleur
Year2023
Volume101
Pages103059-103059
Publication date2023-06-26
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Rural Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0743-0167 • E-ISSN: 1873-1392
PublisherElsevier BV (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1016/j.jrurstud.2023.103059
OpenAlexW4382046310
LanguageEN
Citations received27
References cited62

In the face of diverse socio-ecological crises, regenerative agriculture promises to enliven rural landscapes by positioning farmers as key actors in mitigating the ‘carbon problem’ on the one hand, and adapting to it on the other. This article troubles ways of knowing regenerative agriculture through soil-and-carbon centered representational knowledge practices. Conceptually, we build on relational scholarship and use the concept of (un)knowing landscapes to suggest that agricultural landscapes both become, and become (un)known in and through diverse more-than-human relations. Empirically, we draw from ethnographic fieldwork independently conducted at farms in Finland, Norway and Italy practicing diversified regenerative agriculture. By focusing specifically on the practices of composting and processes of decomposition, we show how farmers come to know and reciprocate the aliveness of their landscapes through both proximate and distant relational dynamics: balancing between control and cohabitation, caring for and taking care of, and attending to multiple rhythms of (re)production. We argue that placing a deeper focus on soils — even when representing them differently — not only risks making proximate relations in diversified regenerative agricultural landscapes unknown, but also permits these landscapes to become known primarily through relations of distance. This, in turn, enables the commensurability of regenerative agricultural landscapes into tradable units for carbon markets. We conclude that transformation towards ecological livelihoods requires a radical reevaluation of, and accounting for, diverse more-than-human landscape relations

Agriculture · Biology · Environmental ethics · Livelihood · Political science · Scholarship · Sociology · Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Organic Food and Agriculture · Ecology