ABSTRACT

Finally, reconnecting society to soil is an immediate challenge and is predicated on those who ‘care’ about soil (McEwan et  al., 2017). This concept of caring for soil may be founded on the notions of beauty and utility (Yaalon, 1996; McBratney et  al., 2017). As a utility, society will increasingly appreciate and want to know the soil that provides good quality clean food, and into the future, a source of their pharmaceuticals (Sojka, 2002; Tugel et  al., 2005; Robinson et  al., 2012). Soil also provides spaces for people to recreate and the value here can be described as a contributor to human health and aesthetics (Keesstra et al., 2016). This group of people could be described as those who are ‘aware for soil’, whose valuing of soil does not rely on any expertise but believe in its need to

1 INTRODUCTION

The concept of soil security describes five dimensions; capability, condition, capital, connectivity and codification, which are used to monitor, analyse and discuss the challenge of food and water security, contribute to maintaining biodiversity and support human health (McBratney et al., 2014). Of these connectivity is probably the least developed dimension. This dimension compliments the need to place a value on the soil, i.e. its capital, and is concerned with understanding how society connects to soil (McBratney & Field, 2015).