The three soils model comes from our friends at THE INSTITUTE FOR MINDFUL AGRICULTURE:

Where Regenerative Agriculture, Food Sovereignty, and Spiritual Ecology meet.

 

The 3 Soils model – draws its authenticity and practicality from Rachel & Steffen Schneider’s 3 decades of developing Hawthorne Valley Farm, a multi-faceted Biodynamic Farm including CSA, local foods, and an apprenticeship training center. They now direct the Chester Agricultural Center in Chester, NY.  The three soils— Ecological Soil, Social Soil, and Inner Soil — are interconnected places/materials/ways of experiencing life on Earth. These soils are grounds for connection or disconnection. The poor health of these soils is at the root of our interwoven modern crises of ecological collapse, winner-takes-all individualism, and desperate shame, fear, and loneliness.Like the physical soils of our Earth, the poor health of these “soils of life experience” comes from invisibility and misunderstanding. Yes, these are helpful concepts to understand the complex history and future of agriculture, but the three soils are also very real experiences.