ABSTRACT
The planet is losing the valuable resource of soil to urban development, industrial agriculture, and other processes. Perhaps part of the problem is that we are not accurately valuing its worth? This chapter explores creating an economic system that is based on the value of compost (e.g. a type of soil) and the provisioning of food for local participants. The concept borrows from alternative currencies and ecosystem services literature and is discussed throughout. The concept called “soil currency” is defined with an exchange rate between the volume of inputs to create compost and the volume of compost needed to grow particular crops. The chapter goes on to discuss the strengths and challenges of such an economic system from a practical and technical perspective. The author provides one case study and some ideas for further research into properly valuing compost for the purpose of providing food to those without access. What follows is one possible version of a closed-loop economic system based on soil currency.
