Facts, Data and People’s Beliefs - an Integral Model to Address Soil Health and Security.

The profound human-centric dominance in the Anthropocene has created changes in land use, biomes, climate, food networks, economies and social communities, which in turn have impacted global resources, such as food, energy, and water, as well as the soils that humanity and other terrestrial lifeforms depend on for survival. We posit that a new integrative science is needed to support global soil security and health that facilitates improved soil synthesis of data, knowledge, understanding, experiences, beliefs, values and actions related to soils considering multiple perspective-dimensions, such as soil-environment, soil-politics and soil-human. We formalized the Integral Soil Model that synthesizes these dimensions relevant in soil health and soil security. The integration process of the Integral Soil Model is grounded in Integral Theory and Integral Ecology and entails the following elements: (i) individual and collective human needs, uses, values, beliefs and perceptions of soils and nature coalesced, (ii) quantitative knowledge of soils and nature derived through empirical observation and quantitative analysis, as well as (iii) systems in which soils are embedded in (e.g., economic, political, social and legal systems). We present the Integral Soil Model that allows for a coherent and formalized framework to address questions and research in soil health and soil security not only from an objective perspective, but also from personal, cultural, and systemic perspectives.