Provocation Soil Trust : designing economies inside an interspecies world of feeders

Abstract

What if prioritizing urban soil care to nourish stomachs, households, and civilizations would be a provocation that simultaneously engaged hotels, farmers, communities, and researchers? By closely attending to the inter-agentive, alimentary relations across humans and the world that feeds them, we introduce the Soil Trust (泥玩) forest garden lab in Hong Kong. The cross-sectoral action research is prototyping a feeders’ economy based on mutualist digestion that revolves around micropolitical rhythms and multispecies protocols. This feeders’ economy derives from the provisional reciprocity of growth and decay in nature; hunger and satiety in bodies; hosts and guests in households; as well as rights and relations in collective action. Here residual vitality from kitchen scraps feed soil ecologies, while human sweat feeds precipitation cycles and penetrated skin feeds underappreciated insects. The harvest grown is not sold; instead, awarded to loyal contributors. The diversity of its members affords unexpected perspectives and openings that bring vibrancy to Soil Trust. Within inescapable capitalism, this feeders’ economy is crowdfunded by hospitality partners that remunerate the growers, not for crops but their ecosystem services—unprecedented in Hong Kong.