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The increased attention drawn to the negative environmental impact of the cattle industry has fostered a host of market- and research-driven initiatives among relevant actors. While the identification of some of the most problematic environmental impacts of cattle is seemingly more or less unanimous, solutions are complex and might even point in opposite directions. Whereas one set of solutions seeks to further optimize sustainability pr. unit produced, e.g., by exploring and altering the relations between elements kinetically moving one another inside the cow’s rumen, this opinion points to different paths. While acknowledging the importance of possible technological interventions to optimize what occurs inside the rumen, we suggest that broader visions of the potential negative outcomes of further optimization are also needed. Accordingly, we raise two concerns regarding a focus on solving emissions through feedstuff development. First, we are concerned about whether the development of feed additives overshadows discussions about downscaling and, second, whether a narrow focus on reducing enteric gasses brackets other relations between cattle and landscapes. Our hesitations are rooted in a Danish context, where the agricultural sector—mainly a large-scale technologically driven livestock production—contributes significantly to the total emission of CO2 equivalents.

The increased attention drawn to the negative environmental impact of the cattle industry has fostered a host of market- and research-driven initiatives among relevant actors. While the identification of some of the most problematic environmental impacts of cattle is seemingly more or less unanimous, solutions are complex and might even point in opposite directions. Whereas one set of solutions seeks to further optimize sustainability pr. unit produced, e.g., by exploring and altering the relations between elements kinetically moving one another inside the cow’s rumen, this opinion points to different paths. While acknowledging the importance of possible technological interventions to optimize what occurs inside the rumen, we suggest that broader visions of the potential negative outcomes of further optimization are also needed. Accordingly, we raise two concerns regarding a focus on solving emissions through feedstuff development. First, we are concerned about whether the development of feed additives overshadows discussions about downscaling and, second, whether a narrow focus on reducing enteric gasses brackets other relations between cattle and landscapes. Our hesitations are rooted in a Danish context, where the agricultural sector—mainly a large-scale technologically driven livestock production—contributes significantly to the total emission of CO2 equivalents.

I sensommeren 2023 har adskillige danske dagblade vist billeder af øde fjordbunde, hvor døde fisk flyder med bugen i vejret. Det kystnære vandmiljø befinder sig i en menneskeskabt krise. Denne artikel undersøger krisens forudsætninger gennem eksempler på engvanding – og senere afvanding og dræning – i Vejle Ådal fra slutningen af 1800-tallet samt gennem byggeriet af en dæmning ved Virksund i Limfjorden i 1960’erne. Vi viser, hvordan både engvandingen med dens kontrollerede overrisling af marker og dæmningsbyggeriet baserede sig på en forestilling om, at vand kan kontrolleres, samt at vand i en produktionsforstand er underordnet jord. Artiklen argumenterer for, at denne kulturhistorie er afgørende for vandmiljøernes krisetilstand i dag.

I sensommeren 2023 har adskillige danske dagblade vist billeder af øde fjordbunde, hvor døde fisk flyder med bugen i vejret. Det kystnære vandmiljø befinder sig i en menneskeskabt krise. Denne artikel undersøger krisens forudsætninger gennem eksempler på engvanding – og senere afvanding og dræning – i Vejle Ådal fra slutningen af 1800-tallet samt gennem byggeriet af en dæmning ved Virksund i Limfjorden i 1960’erne. Vi viser, hvordan både engvandingen med dens kontrollerede overrisling af marker og dæmningsbyggeriet baserede sig på en forestilling om, at vand kan kontrolleres, samt at vand i en produktionsforstand er underordnet jord. Artiklen argumenterer for, at denne kulturhistorie er afgørende for vandmiljøernes krisetilstand i dag.

Med afsæt i feltarbejde på græsbaserede danske malkekvægbrug undersøger denne artikel relationer mellem køer og græs. Nedslag i græssets rolle i skiftende produktionslandskaber fra etableringen af det moderne husdyrbrug til nu viser, hvordan drømme om høj mælkeydelse og rationel fodring har bidraget til at reducere koens foder til et proteinregnskab, med store klima- og miljømæssige konsekvenser til følge. Ved at tilgå græsset som ’gammelt’ i betydningen historisk situeret og lokalt, argumenterer artiklen for, at græs ikke blot indeholder næringsstoffer, men også muligheden for at skabe et landbrug med jordforbindelse, hvor produktionen nødvendigvis må lade sig begrænse af landskabets bæreevne.

Med afsæt i feltarbejde på græsbaserede danske malkekvægbrug undersøger denne artikel relationer mellem køer og græs. Nedslag i græssets rolle i skiftende produktionslandskaber fra etableringen af det moderne husdyrbrug til nu viser, hvordan drømme om høj mælkeydelse og rationel fodring har bidraget til at reducere koens foder til et proteinregnskab, med store klima- og miljømæssige konsekvenser til følge. Ved at tilgå græsset som ’gammelt’ i betydningen historisk situeret og lokalt, argumenterer artiklen for, at græs ikke blot indeholder næringsstoffer, men også muligheden for at skabe et landbrug med jordforbindelse, hvor produktionen nødvendigvis må lade sig begrænse af landskabets bæreevne.

Drawing on Maria Puig de la Bellacasas notion of soil care (2015), this ethnological Master’s thesis examines ontological and practical ways of caring for living soil in Danish small-scale regenerative agriculture. I analyze the doings of preparing and attending plants and soil. I explore how careful attention to connections and coherences of the farm is expressed through what I define as practices of assembly. In practices of assembly both ontological and practical connections of attending plants and soil are built and defined. The analysis is based on practical and situated fieldwork with(in) the regenerative sites with attention to ways regenerative farmers relate to their surroundings and multispecies lives through regenerative agricultural practices. The analysis is divided into three chapters. Starting in the regenerative landscape, the analysis explores how landscapes are shaping and taking shape by careful preparation of beds, in which attention to both present and past agricultural practices are embedded. Secondly, the analysis attends ways farmers relate to plants through watering and planting. I find that this involves ontological strategies of delegating labor to both plants and soil. Third chapter explores how practices of assembly involves relegating human control in landscapes of multispecies trajectories and agencies of which the regenerative agricultural sites for better or worse are situated in. I argue that in regenerative production of vegetables, attention to how farmers can provide for living connections both in and above soil are embedded in doing productive regenerative agriculture. When attending to living relations becomes part of production, it necessarily situates the farmer in his or her surroundings in new ways. In light of pending crisis in conventional agriculture, that is, an agriculture Puig de la Bellacasas characterizes as linear and extractivist (2015), regenerative agriculture is considered an example of what Anna Tsin

Drawing on Maria Puig de la Bellacasas notion of soil care (2015), this ethnological Master’s thesis examines ontological and practical ways of caring for living soil in Danish small-scale regenerative agriculture. I analyze the doings of preparing and attending plants and soil. I explore how careful attention to connections and coherences of the farm is expressed through what I define as practices of assembly. In practices of assembly both ontological and practical connections of attending plants and soil are built and defined. The analysis is based on practical and situated fieldwork with(in) the regenerative sites with attention to ways regenerative farmers relate to their surroundings and multispecies lives through regenerative agricultural practices. The analysis is divided into three chapters. Starting in the regenerative landscape, the analysis explores how landscapes are shaping and taking shape by careful preparation of beds, in which attention to both present and past agricultural practices are embedded. Secondly, the analysis attends ways farmers relate to plants through watering and planting. I find that this involves ontological strategies of delegating labor to both plants and soil. Third chapter explores how practices of assembly involves relegating human control in landscapes of multispecies trajectories and agencies of which the regenerative agricultural sites for better or worse are situated in. I argue that in regenerative production of vegetables, attention to how farmers can provide for living connections both in and above soil are embedded in doing productive regenerative agriculture. When attending to living relations becomes part of production, it necessarily situates the farmer in his or her surroundings in new ways. In light of pending crisis in conventional agriculture, that is, an agriculture Puig de la Bellacasas characterizes as linear and extractivist (2015), regenerative agriculture is considered an example of what Anna Tsin