The Three Soils Framework

The three soils are Ecological Soil, Social Soil, and Inner Soil.

IMA developed the Three Soils Framework, which shows how the health of the earth beneath our feet, our social world, and the quality of our consciousness and inner experience depend on one another. We have observed how intervention in only one realm always falls short of the bigger solution we collectively seek. We believe that cultivating a richer web of value in agriculture and on Earth requires simultaneously engaging with all three “soils”.

Illness in one of the three soils can be traced to illness in the other two. Improving health in one soil can stimulate healing in the others. In IMA’s field of food and agriculture, we see the causes of environmental, societal and spiritual crises rooted across all three soils.

IMA uses the three soils:

to make visible how actual soil tilth, water and carbon cycles, biodiversity and climate stability are connected to what participants value.
as criteria for action-research; transformational change in the foodshed requires participants to engage with all three soils.
as a touchstone metaphor- how would you describe the health of the three soils in your life? What can you do to tend those soils?

infographic words and design: Lila Rimalovski, 2019