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Sociology of Agriculture and Food (SAFRIG)

The temporalities of environmental justice: Misaligned timescales of human and soil systems Adam Snitker*, Adam Snitker,

Soils are a vital resource supporting production of food, fiber, and fuels. Despite the valuable functions that soils provide, scholars have argued that a global soil crisis is occurring (Koch et al. 2013). Scholars have connected this global soil crisis to human activities, such as intensification of industrial agricultural production (Kopittke et al. 2019). Meanwhile, human and soil systems often do not operate across identical temporal scales. Therefore, a soil crisis experienced today may likely occur as a legacy of past human-soil relations. In this paper, I consider the temporal dimensions of environmental (in)justice in the context of soil and agriculture. Drawing on 35 interviews with Colorado agricultural producers, I outline the ways that farmers and ranchers seek to improve soil health conditions to support both economic and ecological resiliency amidst histories of overproduction and soil exhaustion. They discuss ways they seek to reestablish soil health based on the notion of restoring a “living soil.” In doing so, these producers are challenged by the misalignment between temporalities of human and soil systems. I argue that the temporal challenges that producers face can be understood through the concept of intergenerational (in)justice, where past generations did not act as responsible stewards of soil resources to ensure access and viability for future generations. Further, I suggest that through an ecocentric eco-philosophical orientation, the actions of contemporary farmers and ranchers that support a “living soil” may be understood as restorative environmental justice for more-than-human soil communities.