Theological and Religious Approaches to Soil Stewardship - Principles of Sustainable Soil Management in Agroecosystems - page 296

litter to the site and later protecting it from fire when the savannas are burnt (Posey
2000). Historically, these apate were considered “natural” by researchers, but Posey
discovered that this was an anthropogenic landscape (Posey 2000) only after living
with the Kayapo for more than 7 years.
12.5.2 a misH l and s teWardsHip in c ollaBoration WitH a groecologists
Understanding the role of religious influences on soil and land often requires more
than surface investigation, and the relation between religious and other factors is
often dynamic and changing. In contrast to the negative examples described above, a
promising example of soil scientists and other partners leveraging Amish community
religious resources to empower better land stewardship has grown out of the Sugar
Creek project in Northeast Ohio. For the Amish, the belief that people are “tending
the garden” (of Eden) provides the spiritual basis for values that promote biodiversity
(Moore et al. 2001). The Sugar Creek Project involves researchers from Ohio State
University teaming up with local communities to provide them with water quality
data so that each farm family can see its own impact on the stream. One problem for
Amish farmers in the North Fork of Sugar Creek near Kidron was high nitrate and
bacteria levels in the stream that were causing the cows to get sick when they drank
the water. The Amish farmers, with the help of the university researchers and the
Wayne County Soil and Water Conservation District, fenced cows out of the stream so
that the nitrate and bacteria levels decreased. They received government funds, which
paid for most of the cost of the fencing. They paid for the cost-share on the fencing
through church communal labor to install the fencing. They found that the somatic
cell count in the cows' milk dropped dramatically, the mastitis rates decreased, and
herd health improved, and they received a higher premium for their milk from the
dairy as a result of the lower bacteria count. Later, two farmers heading this effort
became the CEO and president of the Green Field Farms organic dairy cooperative,
formed with a main goal of promoting family farming values among Amish youth.
A second case involved the Amish farmers in the South Fork of Sugar Creek who
implemented conservation measures as part of the Alpine Cheese Company water
quality trading plan. Most of the conservation measures improved the manure man-
agement of their dairy herd. They also recycled the milk house waste, high in phos-
phorus (that was previously draining into the ditch), back onto their fields. The success
of the 25 Amish farmers implementing conservation measures in the Alpine Cheese
project served as a model for 21 counties to come together to form a Joint Board of
Soil and Water Conservation Districts in the Muskingum Watershed. In both cases,
the Sugar Creek researchers coupled natural science with an understanding and appre-
ciation of the local culture, and small successes were multiplied into larger projects.
12.5.3 s oil s teWardsHip s undays and tHe d ust B oWl
Another example of promising complementarity between religious and conservation
communities is Soil Stewardship Sundays. This program emerged from parallel con-
cerns for land and cultural decline in the United States in the 1920s. Agencies con-
cerned about rural life and the connection between good soil and rural livelihoods set