The Carbon Economy Beneath Our Feet: Why the Future of Farming Starts with Soil Function
When most people think about "politics", they picture political parties, elections, laws, and debates. Soil is usually the last thing that comes to mind. Yet soil is one of the most vital political and economic resources on Earth.
Every human society depends on the thin layer of living soil beneath our feet. Without functioning soil, there is no agriculture. Without agriculture, there is no food. And without food, there are no communities, economies, or civilizations.
As President Franklin D. Roosevelt famously warned during the Dust Bowl, “The nation that destroys its soil destroys itself”. But understanding the politics of soil requires looking beyond human institutions and examining the complex, living world existing beneath the surface.
What Is "The Politics of Soil"?
Broadly defined, politics involves individuals and groups interacting—both competitively and collaboratively—to obtain resources and accomplish shared goals. That dynamics occurs above ground in human society, but it also occurs continuously below ground.
A single handful of healthy soil hosts a complex biological community:
Bacteria and fungi
Protozoa and nematodes
Microscopic animals and earthworms
Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and plant roots
Every organism in this subterranean network works to survive, requiring food, water, nutrients, and energy. They compete for resources, but they also cooperate. Fungi exchange nutrients - nitrogen, phosphorus, and macro- and micro-nutrients - and water for carbon. Bacteria fix nitrogen and cycle nutrients. Fungi and bacteria break down organic matter to release nutrients. Predators, like protozoa, nematodes, and microarthropods, regulate microbial populations and release nutrients as waste products.
No single organism creates functioning soil. Function emerges from the interactions of a diverse biological community. Healthy systems—whether a teaspoon of soil or human society—depend on the participation and interaction of many different members.
The Carbon Economy
At the heart of this underground political system is a fundamental currency: carbon.
Through photosynthesis, plants capture atmospheric carbon dioxide and transform it using solar energy into carbon compounds. A substantial portion of this photosynthetically derived carbon moves down through plant roots and is released into the soil as root exudates.
These root exudates feed the surrounding biological community. Soil microbes, in turn, cycle plant nutrients, build soil aggregates, improve water infiltration, and protect plants from environmental stress.
Human economies use dollars, markets, and credit to facilitate trade. The biological economy beneath our feet uses carbon. In this biological "carbonomics" system:
Photosynthesis is the production engine.
Root exudates are spent currency used to hire biological labor.
Soil organic matter represents saved capital that delivers long-term resilience and productivity.
The Fragility of Yield-First Agriculture
Over the last 70 to 150 years, agriculture shifted its focus from biological systems to industrial inputs—replacing biology with chemistry and mechanical tools. Yield became the primary metric of success.
While synthetic fertilizers and mechanical tools increased crop yields, relying solely on short-term output created an extremely fragile agricultural industry:
Biological Degradation: Heavy tillage and synthetic inputs disrupt fungal networks and deplete soil organic matter.
Declining Food Quality: High-yield crops receiving limited biological inputs often yield seeds and biomass with lower concentrations of micronutrients, antioxidants, and polyphenolics.
Input Dependency & Debt: As soil biology weakens, farms become reliant on chemical fertilizers, energy, and pesticides. Rising machinery and input costs paired with volatile crop prices leave producers vulnerable to economic crises.
When agriculture treats soil as an inert medium requiring continuous external inputs, it depletes the living carbon capital that sustains system function over time.
Soil First Farming & The CARBON Principles
Transitioning from biological depletion to regeneration requires adopting Soil First Farming—a systems-based philosophy that manages the living biological network first.
Instead of asking only, "How do we maximize yield?", Soil First Farming asks:
How do we capture more carbon and keep it flowing through the soil profile?
How do we reduce dependence on external inputs?
How do we build adaptive capacity against biological, climatic, and economic stress?
This framework is structured around the six CARBON Soil Health Principles:
C — CAPTURE: Capture carbon through continuous living plants.
A — ACTIVATE: Activate soil surface protection with living plants and crop residues.
R — REDUCE: Reduce dependence on external inputs to activate the carbon economy by getting fertility and pest and disease management from biological activity.
B — BALANCE: Balance soil disturbance to maintain soil function by reducing soil organic matter loss and the destruction of soil structure.
O — OPTIMIZE: Optimize above- and below-ground microscopic and macroscopic diversity.
N — NOURISH: Nourish grazing to stimulate root exudates and enhance carbon flow below ground.
Rethinking Politics from the Soil Up
The relationships occurring beneath our feet provide a template for above-ground decisions. The underground biological world shows that individual success and collective system function are interdependent.
Regenerating soil function connects directly with:
Human & Animal Health: Restoring nutrient density in food and feed.
Water Security: Enhancing aggregate stability, infiltration rates, and water retention.
Economic Resilience: Lowering input costs and restoring producer wealth.
Rebuilding agriculture is not about political parties or ideology; it is about biological function. You cannot negotiate with weather, and you cannot legislate biology. By centering decision-making on carbon flows and soil health, human systems can build lasting ecological and economic stability.
It all comes back to carbon. And it all starts with soil.
To explore more about regenerative soil science, agricultural policy, and carbon management, listen to the Politics of Soil podcast and visit KRIS Systems.
If you wish to support this work, please visit our Patreon page.
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